


Prison Break

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, M/M, Post TLJ, Slow Burn, Trapped together trope, a lot of it, bed sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-04-13 18:21:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 119,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14118207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: When making a mission to a distant planet, Rey, Finn, and Poe are captured by scavengers with an unknown dark purpose. When they’re taken to their prison ship, all three are highly displeased to find that they’ve been thrown in there with none other than supreme leader Kylo Ren, who was also on the planet on a mission for the first order. Forced together in a situation none of them ever thought they’d be in, the four must work together to escape the prison, and return to their respective sides... but will all four be so willing to go back?





	1. Men in Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What the hell are you doing here?” She asked, looking up at him bewildered, cringing at how weak her voice sounded compared to the message she was trying to get across. 
> 
> Kylo quirked an eyebrow in her direction, clearly not expecting her to have said anything to him in her rage, “Huh, she speaks.”

  
The day went south from virtually the beginning. The moment they’d landed, Rey was complaining of a headache and were it not for the mission at hand, Poe would’ve demanded that they closed the doors of their small transport, and returned back to the resistance’s newest base. But the mission was vital to their cause, so they pressed on.

The planet they were on was also particularly unpleasant, the storm clouds hanging overhead causing the humidity of the air to rise to unbearable levels. Lightning illuminated the clouds above their heads, lighting them up in brilliant shades of red that were both beautiful and menacing. The light was scarcely enough to illuminate the small mining town that was currently their destination, making it look far more ominous than it actually was.

Around them, the city wasn’t exactly what one could call “bustling” with people. It was crowded, sure, but one could easily walk through its streets without bumping into another person. The buildings were no taller than two stories, save for the one skyscraper at the center of it all that marked the base of the small mining outpost. Each was covered in a coat of simple beige paint, and most looked like they were on the verge of collapse. Several had clothing lines draped from building to building above their heads. At one point a lone pair of pants fell onto Finn’s head, earning a round of laughter from his companions.

“Where did this guy say he was going to meet us again?” asked Poe, scanning the people they passed for a sign of something familiar, though none of them had any idea what this mysterious stranger looked like.

Days earlier, they’d received an anonymous transmission from a First Order ship from a man claiming to want to defect, offering everything he knew about the First Order’s inner workings in exchange for being allowed to leave in peace, never to be seen again.

“In some alley,” Rey replied, not bothering to look over her shoulder as they cruised through the crowd, “He said he didn’t trust the town square, said there are too many people there. Doesn’t want to be recognized.”

“Must be important, then” Finn added.

Poe scoffed, “At least, he thinks he is.”

“Boys, can we focus? We’re coming upon the street.”

“Right.”

“Sorry.”

At long last, the very same sketchy alley they’d been sent in a holo days earlier appeared, looking twice as dark and menacing as it had in the overhead images taken of the very location they now stood in. The trio gulped nervously, and spared glances at each other before heading in one by one, with Poe taking the lead, and Rey taking the rear, both pointing blasters in their respective directions as they treaded forward cautiously.

A soft breeze blew a piece of garbage down the stone path, causing Poe to jump slightly in front of Rey, though for the sake of his dignity she pretended not to notice, and they soldiered on until they reached the end of the alley. A thorough sweep of the area—including the rather abhorrently smelling garbage dump pile in the corner at the end— indicated that there was no one there but them. They were alone in the alley for now.

The mysterious stranger they were supposed to be meeting was to meet them at five minutes before the first sundown, and the first sun was currently setting. Whoever it was, they weren’t appallingly late, but every second that went by without even seeing another person was worrying. What if they’d been caught? What if the first order knew they were there? What if they’d been betrayed? A frightening number of scenarios in which something had gone wrong went through their heads.

As the first sun continued to dip lower in the sky, Poe turned to his comrades and sighed, “He’s not here yet, and I don’t like being cornered like this,” he told them, putting his hands on his hips, “We need to be able to run if this goes south.”

Rey and Finn each nodded in agreement, “Should we go back onto the street?” the former of the two asked, cocking her head in that direction.

“Yeah, but keep your blasters at the ready. Whoever it is might’ve brought uninvited guests. We could be walking into an ambush.”

Keeping their blasters low, but their grips firm, the three slowly retreated from the back of the alley, and headed back out toward the street, mercifully seeing nothing but the occasional citizen of the desolate planet walking by. Upon seeing nothing terribly threatening, they holstered their blasters one by one, but each kept a hand on them just in case.

Once they were out of the alley, it became clear that even the second sun had started to set, and the man they were set to rendezvous with was now astonishingly late. In the silence that accompanied their exit, Rey theorized that there were three things that could have gone awry.

One was that they had gotten the timing of the meeting wrong. Perhaps they had thought it was the setting of the second sun instead of the first.

The second was that they were being set up, that whoever it was claiming to want to leave the first order and everything it stood for was actually lying, and there was no new information to discuss. Just whether or not they’d be taken prisoner or be left as dead bodies in the middle of nowhere.

The third scenario her brain conjured up was that something had happened to the mystery defector. Somehow they had gotten caught up in the many potentially nefarious things that were ongoing on the planet, and they would never be coming to meet them even as a foe.

As much as Rey prayed it was the first of the three, she knew there was no way in hell they were that lucky. Life didn’t work out for any of them that way in the past, and it sure as hell wouldn’t start doing it now.

“Where the hell is this guy?” Finn asked from her left.

She shook her head, “I don’t know. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Rey’s timing had never been particularly perfect, but just this once, it was. Not a second after she spoke those words, a blaster shot rang out from the far side of the street, its heat scorching her face as it missed her by inches. Her heart raced as she turned to the others and shouted, “Run!” before taking off down the street as fast as her feet would carry her, Finn and Poe running on either side of her.

“What was that?” Finn cried as they ran.

Looking over her shoulder, Rey spotted at least six men of similar height and weight chasing after them, their faces covered by cloth, save for the goggles that shielded their eyes. The look of them almost reminded her of her time on Jakku, when she’d worn similar clothing for her scavenging trips to the many fallen ships from both the resistance and the first order, but these men did not give off hungry, scavenger vibes. No, as they gained on the three fighters, she could tell they were on more than just a mission for survival, this was something else. Perhaps scenario number two had been right. Perhaps they had been set up after all.

Thinking quickly, she removed her blaster from its holster, and fired three warning shots at the men as an attempt to deter them. They slowed their pace, giving the resistance’s finest a brief sense of relief.

It was all too short lived, for a moment later three of the six branched off, and ran down another street, presumably to cut them off somewhere else later. As if reading her mind, Poe banked off to the right, and she and Finn hurriedly followed, not fancying getting caught by the three that were still on their tail.

“It’s not the first order!” Poe yelled, his voice barely audible over the loud thundering of her own pulse in her ears.

“Who the hell are they, then?”

“I don’t know, just run!”

And run she did, until they reached a street that wasn’t normally a dead end, but with the three tall, intense looking men that had branched off earlier blocking their exit from it, it sure felt that way. The three turned tail to run away from the new threat, only to find themselves face to face with the old one. Each of them pointed their blaster in the direction of one of the menacing groups, stern expressions on their faces as they contemplated whether or not to shoot.

One of the men on the side Rey was facing took a cautious step toward her, and she planted her foot firmly in the ground, “Don’t come any closer, I’ll use this.”

A deep, rumbling chuckle came from the men surrounding them, each of them just as ready to fire as she was, but none of them said anything. They just stood there staring each other down, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Poe’s voice was the first to break the silence, “Listen, we don’t want any trouble,” he told them, “We’re just here to meet with someone, then we’ll be on our way. We don’t want any trouble.”

“We’re already in trouble,” Finn muttered from somewhere to Rey’s left, the sound of a light smack against fabric hitting her ears a second later.

Somehow, though she would swear they hadn’t moved, the men seemed to be getting closer, inching forward by the minute. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were firmly erect, and fear had begun to set in. Something about the complete silence these men had maintained the entire time they’d chased them and in their final encounter on this empty street was deeply unsettling. They gave nothing away about their intentions or where they’d come from. Everything about them was a terrifying sort of mystery.

The men were undeterred by Poe’s words, however, and each one locked their fingers tighter around the triggers of their blasters. If they squeezed anymore, one of them was bound to go off, and the resistance would shrink even further.

When at last one of them spoke from somewhere on Poe’s side, chills ran down Rey’s spine, and somehow her headache worsened as a gruff, raw voice said, “Come quietly and this’ll be easier on all of us.”

“Why?” Asked the commander, “What do you want? Is it money? Supplies? We don’t have any.”

Another wicked laugh, but not the sort of cheesy villain laugh she’d often seen in holos. No, this was genuinely amused in some sick, twisted way that made her realize there was absolutely no way they were going to resolve this without some sort of violence.

“We don’t want your money, or your supplies. We just need the three of you. Fresh blood.”

Fresh blood? The thought echoed terrifyingly in her mind as her trigger finger began to tremble, and she worked to hide it, not wanting them to see that she was afraid.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, the tremor barely hidden from her voice, “What do you mean by fresh blood?”

She wasn’t answered, except by the cry of, “Alright, that’s enough, do it now!”

Before she could even think, she heard the sounds of some sort of gun fire. All she knew was that it wasn’t a blaster, and that judging by the sound of the scream it was Finn who had been hit first. After that, everything descended into incomprehensible chaos.

She vaguely registered Poe shouting out Finn’s name before she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in the side of her neck, and her headache suddenly worsened to the point where she couldn’t even stand she was so dizzy. Another vague, echoing cry sounded out from where she thought Poe was, and the first of many black spots crowded her vision. She thought she might’ve reached out to touch it, but she couldn’t be sure as many more appeared alongside it, blanketing her vision until she was out cold.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed. It could’ve been seconds, it could’ve been minutes, or it could’ve been several hours since she’d lost consciousness. Her head was throbbing in a way that made the aching from the morning seem like heaven in comparison, and when she made to open her eyes the light blinded her enough to make her groan in pain.

The voice that came out barely sounded like her own. It sounded like she’d been in the desert again, but even more remotely than she had been growing up. It sounded as though she’d been lost out in the endless swirling sands, and she’d been without water for days on end. Her throat ached, too, a pain that felt almost as intense and throbbing as whatever they’d shot into her neck earlier.

With another groan, she attempted to stretch her hands, relieved that they were still there, that she could feel them. She quickly did the same with her legs, though they felt like lead when she attempted to lift them, they were certainly there, and once she recovered from whatever powerful drug they’d injected her with, they’d be working.

She took a few deep breaths, the ringing in her ears slowly sounding more like a deep, familiar voice, but one she couldn’t quite place. Something about it felt almost comforting in an odd sort of way, like she knew it well, almost as well as her own, yet she could not name its source. Still, the more she heard it, the more conscious she seemed to get, so she latched onto the voice, allowing it to pull her out of the throes of the horrid drug that had put her under.

Slowly, she began to open her eyes again, and while the light was still blinding, it was nothing compared to what it had been when she’d initially attempted to open them. Everything was blurry around the edges. She could make out grey, boring walls, and the shape of dozens of bodies surrounding her, each of them seated and as her vision became clearer, she realized they were bound. Shackles adorned the wrists of all those around her, and upon further inspection so were her own wrists and her ankles.

When her vision cleared, she sighed with relief upon seeing Finn and Poe seated across from her, staring down someone she couldn’t see with equal looks of malice and distrust. She could hear the voice that had pulled her from the dark beside her, and it was then that she realized exactly who it belonged to.

Turning her head at what felt like a snail’s pace, she turned her head to find herself face to face with Kylo Ren, one of the last faces she wanted to see in this situation.

“Look who’s awake,” Kylo was saying as her hearing finally began to function.

Rey glared up at him, hoping her gaze would inform him just how angry she was at him. The last time she’d acknowledged him, kneeling in the salt outside the falcon, he’d looked up at her with a mixture of longing and regret that nearly made her run right back to him. If it weren’t for her memory of why they’d separated hitting her at the last moment, she would have gone to him. But she did remember. She remembered how he’d chosen to stay in the dark instead of returning with her to the light. How he’d fired upon her friends, nearly killing them in his first mission as the supreme leader.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She asked, looking up at him bewildered, cringing at how weak her voice sounded compared to the message she was trying to get across.

Kylo quirked an eyebrow in her direction, clearly not expecting her to have said anything to him in her rage, “Huh, she speaks.”

Rey moved to lunge at him, but discovered there were metal restraints across her chest, keeping her firmly strapped into her seat. She succeeded only in brushing his shoulder with hers, the fabric of his tunic brushing roughly against her shoulder. She pulled herself away as quickly as she was able, then resumed her angry gaze into his dark eyes.

It was then she realized she could feel their force bond humming with life, the same sense of balance she’d felt each time they’d connected through the force rushing through her, clearing her head completely. It was as if she were wide awake after sleeping for years, even if it had only been a scant three months since she’d last seen him. Just the brief singe of contact between them set her nerves on fire, whether with rage or relief that he was alright she wasn’t sure. At the moment, it sure as hell felt more like rage.

Her gaze was only torn from his when Finn spoke up, “He said he couldn’t say, couldn’t give away first order secrets,” He said, a hiss hidden thinly behind his voice as he stared kylo down.

“Tell me, FN-2187, would you give up the Resistance’s secrets? Even if I asked nicely?” Kylo asked, the smirk on his face making its way into his voice.

A sigh came from Poe, “Enough.”

Finn and Rey scoffed at the same time, the former of the two speaking first, “You’re just gonna let him say things like that?”

Poe shook his head, “No, I’m not, but he was here when I woke up, which means he’s been here longer than any of us. I’m betting if anyone knows what’s going on, it’s him.”

Rey turned back toward kylo, finding his gaze locked tensely on Poe’s, “Kylo?” She asked softly, finding herself unwilling to use the name he’d been born with like she had the last time they’d spoken, but hoping that she’d be able to convince him to share his knowledge nonetheless, “Do you know anything?”

He nodded, but said nothing, continuing to stare Poe down, which seemed to set the commander on edge, “Well?” He asked, his voice sounding far more agitated than it had a minute ago when he thought Kylo might know something.

Kylo’s smirk slowly faded from his face, and he gave a great sigh before telling them what he knew, “They’re taking us to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, out beyond the war, one of them said something about neutral territory when they thought I was unconscious. I don’t know what it means, but whoever they are, they’re powerful.”

“How?” Rey asked as his eyes fell back on hers.

“I can’t use the force, Rey, and if you try I think you’ll realize you can’t either. I can feel it, I can feel y—”

Rey was quick to shut him off before he could finish that sentence, nudging him with her knee. She’d never told the resistance about the connection they had. The only one who knew was Leia, and she didn’t even know for sure, she just suspected that something had happened between them. Aside from herself, Ben, and the late Luke Skywalker, no one knew that they occasionally, randomly, and without warning appeared in each other’s lives. Though since the battle on Crait, they’d hardly spoken a word to each other.

At first Kylo had tried to talk to her, and the sorrow in his eyes almost had her convinced that she should say something. But she’d always remind herself what he’d chosen over her, the reason why he wasn’t actually standing by her side and he was just appearing to her through some sort of meddling by the force, and so each time he appeared, she ignored him.

Bringing herself back to reality and the situation that had finally, properly brought them back together, she reached out with her mind, attempting to use the force to free herself from the shackles that bound her, but nothing. She could feel the force swirling around her like Kylo had said, but it wasn’t responding to her requests. She grunted in frustration, and tried again, ignoring the smug look that had appeared on her adversary’s face.

“He’s right,” she conceded after another moment, “I can’t access it either.”

Poe and Finn exchanged a worried look, then they stared back at her, “What the hell’s strong enough to block out the force?” the commander asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Nothing I know of,” Kylo said from beside her, “This is something new.”

With that, the four of them fell into an uncomfortable silence, each occasionally glancing up at one another. They were all bursting with the anticipation of what would be said next, but no one wanted to be the first to speak. Well, Rey couldn’t speak for the others, but of herself she was certain she had endless things to say. She had so many questions for Kylo that she may as well ask while they were actually side by side, but she dare not ask them in the presence of Finn and Poe, not wanting her friends to think her a traitor for the connection she had with the first order’s supreme leader.

Hours passed before anyone spoke again, and when they did it was because Kylo had grown tired of the sound of Finn’s foot tapping against the hard metal of the bench, and he chose to tell him off. The others rolled their eyes, and Finn continued to tap his foot with vigor as he stared down the force user, “Why should I stop? What are you gonna do?”

“Finn, don’t stoop to his level,” Rey muttered, leaning her head back against the cold wall.

“Oh come on,” Finn protested.

Poe looked at him sympathetically, “Could be worse.”

“How could it be worse?”

“It couldn’t,” Kylo mumbled in agreement, and Finn chuckled in bitter satisfaction.

Rey shook her head, staring down at where her hands were bound together by the pair of metal cuffs not unlike the ones she’d been met with the last time she’d seen Kylo in person. A wave of sadness washed over her at the memory, but she pushed it aside, and focused on the matter at hand, “We need to get out of here, we’re all important to our causes, we can’t afford to be captured.”

“Even him?” Finn asked incredulously.

Rey gave him a nod, “Even him.”

Kylo scoffed, her head turning back toward him at the sound, “Helping me escape isn’t going to change my mind, Rey.”

She scowled at him, but ignored his statement and the confused looks on Finn and Poe’s faces, “Check your holsters, did they leave our blasters?” She asked, checking her own holster to find it disappointingly empty.

“It’s not here,” Poe replied, after a moment of feeling around.

“Mine’s not either,” added Finn a second later.

Rey gestured at Kylo, “Ben, do you still have your saber?”

The two froze for a second at the slip of his old name, a sorrowful stare passed between the two of them as the name echoed through their minds. Kylo swallowed nervously, then he gathered himself as he answered her, his answer dripping with snark, “Oh, definitely. As soon as I saw them coming I shoved it up my tunic so they wouldn’t see— of course I don’t have my fucking saber. I chucked it in some bin when I saw them coming for me, there’s no way I was letting them know who I am.”

Before Rey could answer him, the ship gave a great shudder, and a screeching noise sounded just outside the walls, as if the ship were being ripped apart around them. The shuddering intensified for a moment, quickly followed by the temperature in the room rising, much to the chagrin of their fellow passengers.

The four looked amongst themselves as they realized what was happening. They were entering an atmosphere. Wherever they were being taken, they were nearly there. Poe looked across at Rey as the shuddering evened out, “Whatever we’re doing, we better do it fast.”

“There’s not much we can do,” Kylo said, almost needing to shout over the loud noises the ship was making, “Rey and I can’t use the force, our weapons are gone.”

“Not to mention the chains,” Rey replied, tugging her hands apart in a futile effort to break them.

Poe groaned, “Alright, then, we wait till we’re on the ground. We need to learn as much about these people as we can. What they want, why they want it, if they know who any of us are, which side they work for…”

Finn scratched his head on his shoulder, and gestured to Kylo, “Didn’t he say they were talking about neutral territory?”

“I did, but that’s all I got off of them.”

“But it sounds like they don’t particularly work for either side,” Rey observed, staring at nothing in specific as she voiced her thoughts, “We’ve all got resistance issue blasters, those would’ve given us away on the spot, and if it were the first order, he would’ve told them who he was. If they want us both…”

The shuddering slowly came to a halt, and the four stared at each other worryingly. Their time was nearly up going by the sound of the ship’s engines. They’d probably be landing on the surface of whatever “neutral” planet their captors had taken them to. Fear stirred in the guts of the three resistance fighters and the supreme leader, each knowing that whatever one could want with both the resistance and the first order was a new level of not good.

No one said anything until they heard a loud hiss, and the steel door at the end of the short corridor they were seated in came up, and the restraints around their chests disappeared behind them into their seats. The restraints around their wrists and ankles, however, remained secure.

They could only watch as the masked men they’d encountered before marched forward, blasters aimed high as they barked out orders for their prisoners to fall in line, and exit the ship without saying a word. Rey, Finn, Poe, and even Kylo all exchanged resigned glances at each other before they fell in line as they were told, and walked out of the ship behind a good dozen or so men and women.

The first thing Rey noticed as she stepped out onto the mysterious planet was that it smelled absolutely wretched. It was worse than anything she’d encountered in her lifetime, the smell reminding her of death, sweat, and piss all in one. It took all of her restraint not to vomit, settling for a wince instead as she walked into what looked like a make-shift plastic tunnel held up by some sort of tubing.

The tunnel gave away nothing of the outside surface of the planet, her only guess as to what it looked like being that the soil at her feet was a deep maroon. She couldn’t tell exactly how long it was either with the amount of twists and turns it took in its path toward what she knew with almost absolute certainty was a prison.

Masked guards stomped in an uneven rhythm beside them, but none of the resistance fighters nor Kylo Ren batted an eye in their direction, not wanting to piss off their captors this early on. They simply kept their heads down, and walked in the only direction they were able.

After a minute or two, the tunnel ended in what seemed like an enormous warehouse, the building boasting a high ceiling lit by lanterns of some sort that cast a dim glow over the entire building. The lanterns illuminated what little they could see over the walls surrounding them, cells lining the corridor they’d found themselves in, as well as the one ahead of them. They could only assume that there were rows after rows of makeshift cells, built from some sort of deep grey cement.

Each cell they passed had a door with a small square window that had four bars each, and some glass faintly visible behind the bars. When they passed one that had an open door, it was revealed to them that each cell had two beds, each one boasting a single sheet and pillow, and looking much too tiny.

The guards led them through the cells for a while, then stopped, and began breaking off the prisoners in groups of four, leading them into the cells. This had the unlikely four turning to stare at each other, knowing the others were thinking the exact same thing about the tiny space in each of the cells. There was no way four of them were fitting in there. Especially with only two beds. They could only wonder why they were being set up this way, but there was no time to argue as the guards reached their group.

Rey thought she recognized the voice that led her into one of the nearby cells on the right, but didn’t comment on it as she was shoved inside. The guard followed her in, and with his blaster still pointed at her, he undid the restraints at her wrists and ankles, then another guard appeared, and tossed some loosely folded beige garments in her hands. She tucked the fabric under her arm as she rubbed her sore wrists, watching as the guards did the same when Finn, Poe, and then to their dismay, Kylo were all thrown in as well, then the door to their cell slammed shut with a bang.

Slowly, the four turned to face each other. More accurately, Rey, Finn, and Poe turned to face Kylo, their expressions bitter as they realized that they were now stuck together, and for the moment, there was no way out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is. So this was definitely not my first fic, but it’s my first one for this particular fandom. Before this I mostly wrote for other fandoms, but you go where the muse goes and it wound up here. Aside from this which I’ve already got a good bit written I’m working on some movie AUs which should also be up some time in the next couple of weeks. I don’t really have an update schedule, but I tend to do it once/twice a week, thanks for coming to my TED talk
> 
> Edit: I forgot to mention that Kylo’s original line about his saber was “I shoved it up my ass,” but I wasn’t sure how in character that was so I changed it.


	2. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is this funny to you?” she asked him. 
> 
> He shook his head, “Trust me, sweetheart, I’d rather be anywhere else.”

 

A tense moment went by as the four stood simply staring at each other, not a word spoken between them. Having to deal with each other on the ship was one thing. That had only been a few hours, and for all they knew, they’d never see each other again once they’d landed.

Oh, how wrong they were.

It felt like lifetimes passed between the resentful stares before a guard banged loudly on their door, his voice harsh and loud as he demanded they change into their “uniforms,” immediately or they’d come in there and do it for them. Each of the four glanced at the clothes in their arms, several eyes widening when they realized there was no privacy in the room, and they didn’t exactly have a choice about changing.

Swallowing hard, it was Poe who spoke up first, “Everyone pick a corner, don’t turn around until everyone says they’re clear.”

A scoff immediately came from Kylo, and the commander crossed his arms over his chest, “You have a problem with that?”

“I have a problem with you giving me orders.”

“We don’t have a choice, supreme leader,” Poe sneered back at him, then the corners of his mouth turned up in a sly grin, “It’s either this or you can enjoy the show.”

Grumbling his assent, Kylo rolled his eyes, and became the first of the four to turn into a corner, Rey, Finn, and Poe quickly following suit.

Rey took in a deep breath as she reached for the belt around her tunic, ignoring the rustling of fabric around her as she unfastened it, and laid it on the bed beside the drab outfit she’d been given. She felt her heart pounding as she pulled off her top, leaving her in just her trousers and breast band.

Hurriedly, she reached for the shirt they’d left for her, and threw it on before she kicked off her shoes, and a moment later, her trousers hit the floor as well. She pulled on the new set of beige pants and slid on the shoes that looked as though they’d already been worn through, and were falling apart.

Once she was done, though she knew the task was useless, she folded the clothes she’d worn on the mission that day, and set them neatly on the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a black mass of Kylo’s own folded up clothing on the foot end of the bed, the corners of her mouth twitching up into a hint of a solemn smile at the sight.

“I’m done,” she announced, waiting until she heard the others say the same before she turned around to see all four of them were now in the same, basic, beige prisoner’s garb.

“Now what?” Finn asked, looking nervously at the door.

Poe shrugged, “I guess we let them know.”

With that, their commander took a cautious few steps forward, and tapped lightly on the door, “We’re done,” he said, then he quickly stepped back as the door was thrown open, and threw guards with blasters burst into their cell. The blasters were pointed firmly at the prisoners as the one in front shouted at them, “Get back against the far wall, and don’t move!”

The four obeyed the order, eyes down as they walked toward the back of the small cell, listening to the sound of their captors’ feet stomping about the cell while they stole their clothes from their places on the beds. Rey cringed visibly when they slammed the door shut behind them on their way out, but when she looked up, she realized that it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

One of the guards was still in the cell with them, only now his blaster was in his holster and it was his gaze keeping them in place, though judging by the rage she was feeling through the bond with Kylo, it wouldn’t do the job for long. “What do you want with us?” She asked, “Why are we here?”

The guard snapped suddenly, pulling his blaster out of its holster, and firing it in Rey’s direction. She yelped as the intense heat whizzed just an inch from her ear, holding the side of her face protectively as she looked back at the guard in horror.

Beside her, she could sense Kylo’s anger simmering just underneath the surface, and she wasn’t sure how, but she knew he was about to make a worse mistake than she’d just made. She rested her free hand on his arm, and looked up at him to find his scowl matching the intense, hateful gaze of the remaining guard, “Don’t,” she warned him, “You’ll only make it worse.”

Kylo glanced at her, their eyes meeting in a silent conversation as she gave him a nod, and the scowl disappeared from his face as he stepped back. Whatever he’d been planning to do was all but forgotten, at least, it looked that way on the outside.

“You will listen,” said the guard, holstering his blaster as he spoke, “And you will say nothing, or I will shoot, understood?”

The four shared a look, then they nodded slowly at the menacing guard.

“Good,” he hissed, then he began to speak, his tone insincere as he launched into a speech about how things worked around the prison.

They were allowed meals twice a day. Once at dawn, and once at dusk. Their meals would be taken outside of the cell, and their wrists would be bound each time they walked out.

The bound wrists rule carried over into most other things, too. Any time they were out of the cell, they’d have their wrists bound, even when they were just asking to relieve themselves.

They would be allowed to shower twice each week, and would have no more than two minutes to scrub themselves clean.

They would be allowed one hour outside each day. One hour outside in a yard that sounded far from glamorous going by the sound of the guard’s voice. Rey could only hope it’d be during the day time, not fancying being stuck in the warehouse all day and only being able to see the outside world at night. It didn’t seem that she’d be that lucky though. When she’d looked out the window a minute earlier, the sky had been pitch black, and there was no telling how long this planet’s night lasted.

“Are there any questions?” The guard asked, then when none of them spoke, he sighed, “You have permission to speak.”

Poe raised a hand beside her, “Yeah, um, is there any chance you could not leave us in a cell with him?” He pointed to Kylo, who’s eyes rolled visibly as he shook his head.

“We don’t have room anywhere else, he stays.”

“Surely you could trade him for someone—”

“He stays,” the guard assured him firmly, then he turned, and walked out of the cell, slamming the door shut, and locking it with some sort of automatic key mechanism behind him.

Once he was gone, Rey noticed that she was feeling a mixture of anger and a smug satisfaction through what little she could feel of the force through their bond, and she shook her head at him, “Is this funny to you?” she asked him.

He shook his head, “Trust me, sweetheart, I’d rather be anywhere else.”

Said the man who had quite literally asked her to rule the galaxy with him just months earlier. She scoffed at him, then sat down on the bed nearest to her, and folded her arms over her chest as a realization suddenly dawned on her. She leaned back against the wall, her head hitting it with a groan.

“What now?” Kylo asked, the irritation barely hidden from his voice.

“There’s only two beds.”

“And?”

“There’s four of us,” Poe finished, “We’re either going to have to share, or some of us are taking the floor.”

Rey shivered where she sat, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms, the cold just now settling over her now that the adrenaline of the journey had worn off, “It’s too cold for that, and there’s only two sets of sheets. We have to share.”

“So who’s sharing with him?”

The jedi looked up at Kylo, who was barely concealing yet another smirk as he looked down at her, but before she could say that there was no way in hell she would, Finn and Poe both immediately declared they wouldn’t. She glared at the two of them, her mouth turning into a thin line on her face as she stared them down. Poe mouthed a “sorry,” in her direction, but it didn’t matter. She was already in a sour mood.

Kylo’s latest smirk became visible on his face as he sat down beside her, “I bet my offer sounds really good right about now.”

She smacked his arm harshly, “Shut up,” she said, then she resumed her position against the wall, dreading the long journey they had ahead of them.

“What offer?” Finn asked, causing Rey to freeze as she realized what Kylo had let slip.

She shrugged, “Nothing, it was when he offered to teach me back in the forest, I said no.”

Kylo’s eyes were most definitely on her, and there was a good chance he had an eyebrow quirked, but though he knew her lie he said nothing, and for once she was grateful to him. She let out a deep breath, and looked back at Finn and Poe, who both looked like they didn’t believe her, but neither of them said anything either.

An awkward silence settled over the room for what must’ve been the fiftieth time since they’d all been thrown together. Occasionally they’d lock eyes with each other, but then each would quickly look away. It felt as though they could read exactly what the others were thinking. Each one of them all thinking the same thing. How the hell would they survive this without trying to kill each other?

“We need to make a truce,” Rey said after a moment, then before Finn and Poe’s protests could leave their mouths, she added, “A temporary truce. Just until we get out of here.”

Finn scoffed, “Are you serious? After what he did to us?”

Beside her, Kylo flinched, but said nothing, keeping his eyes trained on the floor. She tucked her legs up on the bed beside her, “Just listen to me, please.”

Finn looked hesitantly at Poe, who repeated her statement, then sat down beside him on the bed. Groaning slightly, Finn crossed his arms over his chest, seeming ready to listen to what she had to say.

“If we hurt him, we don’t know what they’ll do to us, for starters. They were ready to shoot us a moment ago just because I asked a question. I can’t imagine they’d take too kindly to us hurting one of their prisoners.

“That said, we won’t be able to escape much less survive here if we don’t work together, and we can’t do that unless we call some sort of a truce. As much as we all loathe him,” she stared angrily at Kylo, “We have to tolerate him.”

“Easier said than done,” Poe grumbled, “But I’m in.”

“Me too,” Finn said.

Kylo glanced at Rey, who looked up at him with hope in her eyes, her hand outstretched toward him, reminding him too much of the time she’d appeared in his quarters on the Supremacy bathed in firelight. Then, as if he weren’t experiencing enough flashbacks, she opened her lips, and uttered one word, “Please.”

Hesitantly, as if putting his hand closer to a flame, he reached out for hers, their bond humming intensely between them as he shook it, “I’m in.”

Rey’s gaze held firm as they shook hands, then she dropped his hand immediately once it was done, and looked away from him. The four once again stared at each other, though this time felt different. There was still an air of distrust and mutual loathing, but all the same it felt as if a weight had been lifted from each of their shoulders.

A moment later, Poe spoke up, “About escaping…”

“What about it?” Finn asked.

“We need to do a little reconnaissance first. We can’t get anywhere until we know more about this place.”

“Agreed.”

“When did they say dinner was?”

“Dusk,” Kylo replied, folding his arms over his chest, “Not that we’d be able to tell when it was.”

Rey glanced out the window, remembering how pitch black it had been out there moments ago, and how dark it was even now. There was no telling what time it was. She couldn’t even tell if they were closer to dinner or to breakfast. There was no way of knowing how long they had until they’d be able to get a good look at the prison. For now, it would be an endless cycle of waiting.

The Jedi pushed herself off of the bed, and walked over to the window, standing just short of the bottom part of it. She sighed, and shook her head, “Could one of you look out for me? I can’t see a thing.”

Footsteps sounded behind her, and she moved out of the way of the window to find herself inches away from Kylo. She cleared her throat, then moved past him, all too aware of the brushing of their arms as she hurried out of his way.

Kylo stepped up to the window, looking out of it into the black abyss before turning back, and sitting back down on the bed, “There’s nothing out there. It’s pitch black.”

Rey sat down beside him, careful to keep her distance, “So it’s night. Whatever our next meal is, it’s breakfast.”

“Not necessarily,” Poe said, “This planet could have nights that last several of our standard days. We could have ages before the sun rises again.”

“That’s true,” Rey agreed, pulling her knees up against her chest, and resting her hands on top, “But does that also mean they’ll go days without feeding us?”

No one spoke. None of them particularly wanted to think about being starved for days on end, but it was unfortunately a possibility.

“It could also be that they’re running on some sort of clock,” Finn suggested, “Maybe they’re doing it on a timer.”

As if he’d commanded it, a loud sort of bell rang throughout the prison, causing each of them to jump at the noise. The sound was loud enough that it seemed to reverberate through Rey’s soul. It almost felt like it was coming from within her.

She put her hands over her ears, and stared at the others, “What the hell is that?” Not that any of them would know the answer. They were all as clueless as she was.

After ringing four times, the bell ceased, and Rey was left with an odd sort of ringing in her ears as she recovered from the auditory assault. “What just happened?” She asked, perhaps a little too loudly for the space they were in. In her defense, she could barely hear herself think.

She was answered by a gruff sounding male voice she’d never heard before, though it didn’t sound like it belonged to one of the guard either, “That’s the mealtime bell, rings about every twelve hours or so. It’s dinner time now.”

She stood up quickly, and raced to the barred window on each door, wondering just where the voice had come from as she looked around. Poe and Finn were quickly beside her. She was relieved to realize Kylo was still sitting on the bed brooding, since she didn’t exactly want to deal with being super close to him just yet. “Hello?” She called out softly.

After a moment of her eyes scanning the empty halls, she landed on the cell door right across from hers, where she could see a kind looking, yet tired middle aged man staring back at her. “That’s how this works, they feed you once every twelve, and let you outside after breakfast, assuming you stay in your place.”

“What does that mean?” Poe asked.

The stranger remained silent for a while, then when next he spoke, he issued a warning to them, “I can’t say. These walls are thin and they’re always listening, but whatever you do, don’t reveal anything to them about yourselves. Don’t tell them anything. They already know too much.”

“But they don’t know anything,” Poe said.

“They know you and your friend there are resistance fighters, so’s that other lad. And the tall one’s from the first order. That’s already too much. Don’t tell them any more. They’ll use it against you.”

Rey pressed a hand up against the glass, “Who are you?”

Their new ally shook his head, “Like I said, can’t tell them anything. You don’t want to know what they’ll do to you once they think they know something, once you step out of line. Keep your heads down, and your mouths shut. That’s all I have to say.”

With that, the man’s face disappeared from the window, and Rey and the others were left dumbfounded. “The hell was that?” She asked.

“A warning,” Kylo said, lowering his voice until she almost couldn’t hear him, “One we should use.”

Rey gave him a hum of assent, then she moved away from the window as the sound of the guards’ feet marching toward them filled their ears. She didn’t exactly fancy another encounter with one of their blasters so soon. She rejoined Kylo on their bed, grimacing at the thought that it was their bed, and waited patiently with the other three as the marching drew closer.

Around them, cell doors were opened, and the smell of some sort of bread and meat wafted in through the ceiling-less cells. The sound of the guards rough voices made Rey tense visibly, but she maintained a neutral expression as at last they arrived at their door, and two masked men came in with an odd looking cart carrying plates full of Luke warm food.

Without saying a word to any of the four, they took two of the plates off the cart, and set them on the floor harshly, a gooey substance sloshing off of one of the plates. Once they finished, they pulled the cart out, instructed them to leave the plates by the door when finished, and slammed the door shut behind them.

Rey stared down at the food on the two plates, which consisted of some sort of mush and a pathetic looking piece of bread in portions much too small for one person, let alone two. Given what she’d had to endure on Jakku, it didn’t faze her much, but as for the others…

Finn and Poe were both staring down at the food in concern, sharing the same fearful look in their eyes as they came to the conclusion she’d already come to. There would be no hope for an escape if they were starved like this, but their fear was mild. This would be highly uncomfortable, but something they could potentially manage.

Kylo was staring at it with a hint of bewilderment, and it suddenly occurred to Rey that with his upbringing and being the Supreme Leader, he’d never had to deal with starvation. He’d never had to encounter a situation where he didn’t have enough to eat. In her anger at him, his misery brought her an odd sense of satisfaction, and a small laugh escaped her.

“Something funny?” He asked.

Rey scratched the back of her head, “Nothing, nothing at all.”

“What’s the matter, supreme leader? Never had to share your food before?” Poe said, a glint of mischief in his eyes, “It’s prison, not your war ship. Payback’s a bitch, huh?”

Kylo scoffed, “What was that we were saying a minute earlier about a truce?”

“Rey said a truce, no one said anything about having to be nice to you. A truce doesn’t mean I’m going to just forget about what you did.”

Rey and Finn watched them nervously, the latter of the two with his head in his hands as he looked on at Kylo and Poe’s argument, which was what they suspected to just be the first in a long line of misery. Rey gave him a weak, sympathetic smile, and hoped that this would be the last.

“You’re not so innocent yourself,” Kylo muttered, standing up off the bed abruptly.

“At least I haven’t killed whole planets!” Poe shot back, repeating Kylo’s action.

“What do you call the Star Killer base?”

“They were storm troopers! They were just like you!”

By this point, their voices were raised fairly high to the point where they were almost yelling, Kylo’s rage surging through the bond. Rey wasn’t sure exactly what the other prisoner had meant when he warned them not to step out of line, but she could guess this argument certainly counted.

Before Kylo could form his counterattack, Rey got up off the bed, and rushed between them, careful to not knock over the plates holding their dinner, and putting a hand on each of their chests to stop them from getting any closer, “Hey! Calm down, we’re stuck here for the time being, we’re going to have to learn how to live with each other.”

“He started it,” Kylo said, his voice dropping back down to normal speaking volume.

“And I’m finishing it. That’s enough. We can’t scream at each other as much as I’d love to give you hell. We have to ‘stay in line,’ as our… new friend put it.”

“She’s right,” Finn said, jumping up with them, and standing beside Poe, who still stared at Kylo like he was ready to kill him, “And we’re not going to get anywhere if we’re at each other’s throats. We called a truce, remember?”

Poe and Kylo held their intense stare down for a moment longer before they took steps back at the same time, and Rey’s hands fell back to her side as she took a step back. The resistance commander held out his hand, “Let’s try again?”

The supreme leader hesitated, but took the hand in front of him, and shook it, “Fine.”

Rey felt a groan leave her throat, “If you two are finished, we should eat. This isn’t enough, but it’s better than nothing.”

The others hummed their assent, then the four sat down on the cold, hard floor of their cell, and ate their first prison meal in silence.

Kylo and Rey took one plate and Finn and Poe took the other, but all grimaced as they first bit into the hard chunks of bread that had come with their meal. Rey willingly allowed Kylo to eat most of theirs, figuring she was better adjusted to starvation and if she were being honest, it was worse than some of the portions she’d had back on Jakku.

Once their meal was finished, they followed the guards instructions, and left the plates in a pile on the center of the floor. They stood awkwardly by their beds, all four keeping their heads down until the guards left, and they were once again confronted with the silence of their own cell.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted,” Finn said, rubbing at his eyes, and throwing himself on his bed.

Poe was laughing as he sat down beside him, “Move over, we have to share, remember?”

Finn groaned loudly, but moved as close to the wall as he could while his friend joined him on the small, cot of a bed. He then handed Poe the sheet, and the commander covered them both with it.

“You two going to be okay?” Poe asked, looking between Rey and Kylo, who stood frozen in front of the bed.

“We’ll be fine,” Rey replied, then she watched as Poe gave her a smile, and he turned to face Finn and the wall of their cell.

Once they looked away, she turned to Kylo, “Do you have a side preference?”

He swallowed nervously, “No, I… I’ve never really shared a bed with anyone. Not since my parents,” he said quietly, lowering his voice so that Finn and Poe wouldn’t hear him.

Rey looked at him sympathetically, only just resisting the urge to rest a hand on his arm. He looked so human in that moment, so vulnerable in a way she’d only seen a few times before. It was one of those rare moments where Kylo Ren melted away, and Ben Solo was standing beside her, every bit the young boy he once was.

Their connection was buzzing with a mixture of fear and excitement, though she wasn’t sure which emotion was coming from whom. She could feel his underlying frustration at the whole situation, and she was certain he could feel hers as well. Reaching out with her mind, she brushed his and sent waves of assurance that they’d be able to handle this despite everything that had transpired between them. One of them had to be brave.

Kylo’s tension calmed after a moment, and she smiled at him, then she took her place on the bed, lifting the sheet so she could slide in against the wall, then she turned to face it. She felt the weight of the bed shift a moment later when Kylo got in beside her, and when she looked back at him, his back was to her.

Turning away from him again, she sighed, and pulled the sheet up above her shoulders, the cold night air of the planet making her shiver slightly. “Good night,” she said softly.

She was pleasantly surprised a minute later when his deep voice replied, “Good night, Rey.”


	3. Snow Storms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I wanted to talk about the bond, not your offer,” she said. 
> 
> He gave her a nod, “Right. What about it?”
> 
> “Snoke’s dead, yet you’re still appearing to me at the worst of times.”
> 
> “You’re not doing much better.”
> 
> She let out what almost sounded like a chuckle, “At least I turned away. You stood there frozen for a good twenty seconds.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting again because I’ve been working on this all day and it’s fun. I don’t usually post three times in one day, this is a rarity, I assure you.

 

When Kylo woke up with a start several hours later, he didn’t know where he was at first. The unfamiliar looking brown walls and the cot on the far side of the room with two bodies sleeping soundly within it frightened him. The howling of wind outside didn’t do much to help him, nor did the rumble of thunder that shook the ground.

He was suddenly acutely aware of an arm slung over his waist. A thin, but warm arm was wrapped around him, pulling him close against a small body. The touch calmed him some, though he couldn’t quite explain why until he felt the waves of content washing over his bond with Rey, and he realized just who was holding him. It was Rey’s breath warming the base of his neck, Rey’s body pressed against his, and Rey’s arm wrapped tightly around him.

The memories of the previous day came flooding back to him instantly. From the moment he’d stepped off his own ship to the moment the masked men had caught him in the alley, to the moment he’d fallen asleep back to back with Rey, though it seemed that that position had changed drastically by the way she held him in her unconscious state.

Frozen in a state of awkward uncertainty, he barely even breathed for several minutes as he ascertained what to do about Rey’s sleeping form spooning him. He thought he ought to let her sleep, but she wouldn’t be too happy when she woke and discovered he’d let her hold him and done nothing. She’d likely accuse him of being a scoundrel and their newfound truce would face a very tense day.

On the other hand, she didn’t necessarily have to know that he was aware of it. And as far as he knew, they still had time to sleep. He reached out through their bond, and confirmed to himself that she was indeed out like a light. With that in mind, his shoulders untensed, and he relaxed back into his pillow as he attempted to return to sleep.

The raging storm outside had other ideas. A flash of lightning illuminated their dimly lit cell, allowing him to see everything for a split second. From what he could see, Finn and Poe were still sleeping, though much like he and Rey were at present, they were also a tangle of limbs in their sheets. Apparently his former stormtrooper and the commander were also restless sleepers like Rey.

The inevitable boom of thunder that followed shook the ground again just as Rey’s thinly covered foot made a breach between his calves, mercifully shaking her awake just as his breath hitched from the sensation.

At first, Rey groaned pleasantly as she woke up, fingers flexing against his abdomen, then finding a grip in his shirt as sleep slowly began to leave her. She wasn’t quite aware of what was happening yet, that much was clear. She had no idea that she was intimately wrapping herself around him, and he was the one she was sharing a bed with.

He felt her confusion through their bond, much like his had been when he’d done the same thing mere moments earlier, and without thinking, he let his amusement at the thought slip through. He regretted it immediately when he felt her freeze against him, her fingers still caught in his shirt, but no longer moving softly against him, her leg stiff between his. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what she was doing, and who she was doing it to.

Kylo continued to breathe calmly and quietly as if he were still asleep, uncertain of whether she knew he was awake yet. His cover was blown quickly when another alarmingly loud clap of thunder sounded outside their cell, and he flinched involuntarily. He cursed under his breath, and felt Rey’s anger breech his mind.

She slid her foot away from him, and unwrapped her arm from around his waist. He felt her shift a second later, presumably to resume the position she’d held earlier in the evening when they’d first fallen asleep.

“How long have you been awake?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Only a minute.”

“Thunder?”

“Yeah.”

She sighed beside him, then he heard her shift again, her side pressed against his back. He felt her stiffen when another bolt of lightning illuminated the room, and for another millisecond they could both see everything. “Are Finn and Poe…?”

“They’re asleep.”

He wasn’t sure how he knew, but she nodded, and took in a deep breath, “We should talk about it.”

“Talk about what?”

She shushed him as quietly as he sensed she was capable of, “Don’t wake them, I haven’t told them about our… connection.”

It became obvious to him then just what she wanted to speak to him about. “Why didn’t you have this conversation with me any time in the past three months?” He barely hid the anger from his voice, but the way they were bonded, he knew he’d failed.

There was a pause before she answered him, the sound of her intake of breath muted some by the howling of the wind and pounding of the rain outside, “You were an ass last time we saw each other, physically, that is. A complete, utter ass. To say I was mad would be putting it lightly.”

“You could’ve come with me.”

A loud boom of thunder drowned out the first half of her answer, “... my place belongs with the resistance, the people trying to free the galaxy from oppression and tyranny.”

Kylo shifted in the bed until he’d turned to face her. She was staring up at the ceiling, one hand supporting her head, the other toying with the fabric of their sheet, and she was making every effort not to look at him. “My offer was to bring a new order to the galaxy, not necessarily with the first order.”

She looked down, her face lit up by a flash of lightning, giving away an almost heartbroken expression, though in the brief glimpse he got, he couldn’t be sure. “I wanted to talk about the bond, not your offer,” she said.

He gave her a nod, “Right. What about it?”

“Snoke’s dead, yet you’re still appearing to me at the worst of times.”

“You’re not doing much better.”

She let out what almost sounded like a chuckle, “At least I turned away. You stood there frozen for a good twenty seconds.”

He felt himself flush at the memory she was referring to. One of the first times the force had connected them after their unfortunate parting on Crait, he’d been about to shower when the rushing noise that accompanied their bond entered his ears and she appeared before him. She’d shrieked and turned away from him immediately and he had frozen on the spot. It took him a few seconds before his body caught up with his brain, and he finally reached for a towel to cover himself until Rey disappeared a few minutes later. Neither of them said a word the whole time.

“Fair enough,” he replied as more thunder boomed overhead. He could only wonder how Finn and Poe weren’t awake yet. Both he and Rey had already awoken due to the loud thunder. It was a wonder that the others hadn’t, but maybe they were just lucky.

Rey finally turned to look at him, mouth opening as if to say something, but pausing for a few seconds before she did. Lightning illuminated her face once more, bathing her in a blue light that showed her eyes quickly flicking up to meet his. “I—“

Before she could even begin her sentence, another thunderclap echoed throughout the prison, and they heard Poe groan from the other side of the room as he finally woke up. Kylo sighed as he turned away from Rey, resuming the position he’d had at the beginning of the night.

He could feel a hint of panic from Rey, her alarm reflecting his own as they feared that they may have been caught. Though Poe hadn’t made any noise before that last clap of thunder, for all they knew, he was listening for a lot longer. Kylo stared over at him as the commander stretched, and Finn’s own awakening groan followed a moment later.

Poe said something unintelligible to Finn, his voice drowned out by the storm outside. Kylo felt a surge of relief from both himself and Rey as they realized that perhaps the storm had drowned out their conversation from prying ears. Perhaps it had actually been the clap of thunder that woke Poe up.

“Is everyone awake?” Finn’s voice called out a moment later.

“Think so,” Rey replied, then the bed shifted as she sat up.

“That is one hell of a storm.”

“No kidding.”

The two shared a laugh as Kylo groaned, though the noise was drowned out by another clap of thunder. “The whole prison has to be awake by now,” he said.

“I wonder how much time has passed,” Poe mused, lightning revealing his pointed gaze at the ceiling, “Has it been two hours or eight?”

“Place like this? No way it’s eight,” Rey replied, “They wouldn’t let us get a decent amount of sleep if how they treated us earlier is anything to go by.”

Kylo grunted his assent as he too sat up in the bed, “They nearly shot you just to prove a point.”

“Exactly, so there’s no reason why we’d be allowed to sleep in.”

Rey’s sense of timing was truly uncanny. No sooner had the words left her mouth than did the prison bell ring deafeningly loud, and the lights become bright again in the prison. Well, as bright as their prison lights got. The lightning flashing outside still made it feel dark as the sound of the prison waking up filled their ears. The stomping of the guards feet sounded in the distance, and the four shared another fearful look as they anxiously anticipated their second day of imprisonment.

Kylo slowly rose from the bed, watching as the others did the same, then he cautiously approached the door, and peered out the window to see if he could spot the guards approaching them. He looked down either side of the hallway, but there was nothing, yet. Wherever they were marching from must’ve been the other side of the prison.

“See anything?” Finn asked.

He shook his head, “No, not yet.” He returned to his place by the bed, the guards stomping filling his ears, “But they’re coming.”

Rey shifted nervously beside him, running her hands up and down her arms as a chill settled over the room, the warmth of their beds slowly fading from their bodies. A shiver ran down Kylo’s own spine, and he shook slightly as they stood together in the cold.

“It’s freezing in here,” Poe commented, “I can’t believe that isn’t snow out there.”

Kylo spared a glance out the window, where he could now see rain droplets running diagonally down the pane, “It must still be a few degrees above freezing. If it were any colder…”

A feeling of excitement and wonder flickered at the front of his mind, and he turned to face the source of it to see the same feelings echoed in Rey’s eyes. He wondered why the prospect of snow excited her, but then he remembered.

She’d grown up in the desert. The only other time she’d seen snow was when she and Kylo had been locked in battle, and she’d marred his face with the scar he still bore. For her to see snow without the unfortunate context of battle would be a huge personal victory.

Before she could comment on it, though, the stomping of the guard drew closer. Upon looking out the window again, he confirmed to the others that they were indeed on their way, and they were bringing more of the same disgusting excuse for food they’d been given last night.

The four backed up against their beds again, and waited patiently and wordlessly while the guards worked their way toward their cell. They came in a minute later with their blasters high as they delivered the food, then left the unlikely four to eat by themselves.

They remained silent through most of the meal. No one spoke a word until midway through, when they heard the storm outside begin to let up. The pounding of the rain faded away into something softer, and the thunder stopped shaking the ground beneath their feet. The lightning was only flashing once per minute, and the sound of precipitation hitting their roof was much softer, though still present.

More importantly, Kylo noticed that the temperature in the prison continued to drop. It lowered to the point where, even indoors, he could see his breath misting in the air before him. His body shivered slightly in response to the chill, but he ignored it as a curiosity overtook him.

Without thinking, he offered his chunk of bread to Rey, and hesitantly, she took it. He figured he’d repay her favor of giving him the majority of their dinner the previous night. He then stood up, and made for the window, peering out of it to see the usual pitch black, but this time it was accompanied by snowflakes falling softly against the edges of the window.

“It’s snowing.” He turned to look at them, noting that Finn and Poe’s expressions mirrored his own disgruntled one, but Rey’s lit up like the sun. He felt her overwhelming joy flood his thoughts, and the corners of his mouth twitched in a smile he had to work to contain.

He rejoined the other three on the floor, resuming his position beside Rey, who’s eyes had not left the window since he’d gotten up to look out of it. He could tell she was still watching the snowflakes gathering on the windowsill, a look of awe stuck in her eyes.

She remained that way through the rest of breakfast, until Kylo reached for the last chunk of meat from their plate. It was then that her gaze was torn away from the window, and she snatched the plate away from his hands, holding it away from him in an almost teasing manner before she set the plate back down, and tore the chunk in two. He chuckled slightly as she handed him the smaller of the pieces, and pinching his nose, he downed it without swallowing.

Minutes later, Finn and Poe finished their meal as well, and once again, the guards came to collect their plates. The four remained silent as usual until the guards were gone, then Kylo watched as Poe entered commander mode.

“If I remember correctly, they said after breakfast they take us outside. This may be the best chance we have to see what the prison looks like.”

The other three nodded in agreement. “We’ll also need to make use of the bathrooms at every chance we get, even when we don’t need to use them,” Kylo added, “The more we can memorize this place mentally the better.”

Poe looked surprised that what Kylo had said had actually been helpful, and not an underhanded attack. “Yes… exactly. Keep note of where you go everywhere, how many paces, how many turns and which way they go, otherwise we’ll never get out of here.”

“We still don’t know what they want, though,” Finn said, tapping his fingers against the bed frame, “They have to be keeping us for a reason. We need to know what that is.”

Poe hummed his assent, “We can probably ask our friend in the other cell if he’s still there.”

Kylo shook his head, “I’m not sure if we can trust him yet. Until we know how things work around here, we can’t trust anyone.”

“But he seemed frightened when he told us about the prison,” Rey observed, scratching absentmindedly at the back of her head, “I think it may be a matter of him trusting us.”

Kylo thought on this for a moment, running a hand through his hair as he once again stood up, and walked over to the window, pressing his face against the glass. As of right then, their neighbor was nowhere to be seen. Going by the man’s demeanor, he was likely cowering somewhere in a corner, but given what Rey had said, he had to at least try to reach out to him.

“Hey!” He whispered, hoping his voice carried over to the other cell. When he received no response, he called out again, “Hey!”

A moment later, the man’s worn looking face appeared in the glass of the other cell, and Kylo felt relief run through his veins. “Can you tell me why they want us here?”

The man’s eyes grew frightened, and for a moment he looked as though he were about to draw back away from the window, but he stopped when Rey walked up beside Kylo, pushing him lightly to the side so she could talk to the man. “Why do they want us here?”

Kylo smirked at her. If he’d had trouble getting through to the man, so would she. She’d been right, they needed him to trust them. Not the other way around, which was why it surprised him when the man actually answered her question.

“They’re traders,” the man explained, “They trade information for money. They take folk from both sides and they obtain their knowledge, then they sell that knowledge to the highest bidder from either side.”

“How do they get it?”

“Trust me, miss, you don’t want to know. All I can tell you is, keep your head down. Don’t disturb them. If they sense you causing trouble, they’ll come after you.”

“What does that mean?”

Before the man could answer, they heard the sound of the guard’s feet stomping toward them again, and the man disappeared into his cell before they could call out to him.

Kylo rejoined Rey in her position by the cell door as they watched the guard march down their hallway, going into the rooms one by one, and pulling out the prisoners, hands cuffed as they were marched down the hall.

“Guess it’s time to go outside.” Poe said as Rey and Kylo moved back closer to their bed.

“Guess so,” Rey replied as their cell door unlocked, and the guards flooded in, two with blasters pointed firmly at the prisoners, and two with cuffs at the ready.

They cuffed Kylo first, then Finn, then Rey and Poe, then the two with the blasters ordered them to exit the cell, and remain silent as they were marched out into the hallway.

As soon as they were out in the hallway, Kylo was keeping note of everything. On the right side of the hall there were five cells until they reached the near end of the corridor, and four on the left. When they reached the end, they turned left, and the temperature immediately dropped further, but they were no closer to the prison yard, if the distance they still had to walk to it was anything to go by. This told him that there was some sort of exit nearby, some sort of open door that would allow them to potentially exit once they had an escape plan. He made note that there were no cells lining this particular corridor.

The temperature warmed slightly as they made a right, and there were once again cells lining the hallway, a good dozen or so on each side. He imagined much was the same for the corridor housing his cell with Rey, Finn, and Poe.

They made another left, and this time, they were hit by a freezing cold blast of wind, which was most definitely coming from the open, but guarded door at the end of this hallway. Kylo froze for a split second longer than he meant to as the biting cold bit into his flesh through the too thin prison garb, and felt the business end of a blaster press against his back.

“Move,” a guard ordered him, and he quickly obliged.

The prisoners were marched until they reached the yard outside, where thin, scratchy blankets were draped over each of their shoulders as they walked out, though they didn’t do much to warm any of the prisoners. Kylo accepted his with a grunt of thanks, then he walked out into the wet maroon dirt that composed the yard, and felt snow fall onto his face.

The snow felt cold, but soft against his skin, and he looked up into it, watching the snowflakes appear from the dark as they fell into the lights of the prison. One snowflake fell into his eye, and he blinked it away awkwardly, reaching up with his cuffed hands to wipe it from his eyes before he looked around the yard.

The yard wasn’t terribly big, but it wasn’t overly cramped either. It was surrounded by fencing with sharp points at the top, and what looked like an electrical force field of some sort emitting a blue light just outside of it. There were at least three dozen other prisoners out there with them, maybe four. It didn’t take him long to realize this was all of the prisoners from their corridor, and they were doing this incrementally.

“Well, this is absolutely freezing,” Poe muttered from beside him.

Kylo turned to see Finn, Poe, and Rey in a semicircle of a huddle, standing shoulder to shoulder as they braced against the cold. Though they had a truce, he somehow sensed he wasn’t invited.

“No k-kidding,” Rey said, voice trembling as she visibly shivered, but that look of awe remained on her face all the same as she looked up into the snow. Kylo almost smiled as she held out a cuffed hand toward the sky, turning her palms up toward the snow to catch as many flakes as she could. In the distance, thunder rumbled but she hardly even noticed, too enthralled by the sight of the snow falling on and around her.

“Enjoying yourself?” He asked.

She finally broke her gaze at the sky, and held his for a moment, “I would be if we weren’t here.”

“So would I,” Finn replied, huddling tighter against Poe while Rey stepped away to look at the snow more.

Kylo watched her leave, then he stepped closer to Finn and Poe. “We should compare what we saw in there, in case one of us missed something.”

Poe gave him a nod, then he looked around to make sure no one was listening. Upon seeing that no one else but Rey was in earshot, he turned back to Kylo and Finn, “It’s a good two hundred maybe three hundred paces here, we took two lefts and a right, and we passed another cold spot that’s a likely exit, we just have to figure out where it is from there.”

“I saw the same things, but I got another look at the ceiling, and I don’t know how important this is, but it’s dome shaped. Not sure how significant that is,” Finn said.

Kylo adjusted the blanket on his shoulders, “We all saw the same things, then. Did anyone happen to look back the way we came?”

The two men in front of him shook their heads, but their answer didn’t worry the supreme leader too much. He hadn’t looked either. “Maybe Rey did though,” he muttered.

“We should probably ask her,” Finn said, then he began walking to the corner of the yard Rey had gone off to to look at the snow as it passed over a yellow tinted light.

She looked almost hypnotized as they approached her, ignorant of the men and women surrounding her who were all walking about angrily, some walking within mere inches of Rey, but never touching her. It was as if she existed in a world of her own.

“Rey!” Poe called out, though his voice rode the line between talking and shouting, clearly not wanting to draw too much attention to his group.

Their neighbor’s warning rang clear in Kylo’s head, keep your heads low, and don’t draw too much attention to yourselves. He intended to heed that warning, but his intentions were quickly proven to be just that. Intentions.

As soon as Rey turned around, she bumped into a surly looking older man, who promptly yelled at her, “Watch where you’re going!” And shoved her away.

Rey lost her balance as the man moved past her, and stumbled backward, her blanket falling off of her shoulders as she tripped and began to fall into the snow. Kylo and the others rushed toward her, and before he could even think, he knelt to the ground and held his arms forward to catch her before she could hit the ground. She landed in his arms with a grunt, and he nearly fell over himself from the impact, but even with the cuffs limiting him, he managed to stay upright.

He looked down at her once it was all over, noticing she was rendered as breathless as he was by the encounter, staring up at him with shocked eyes as he held her for a second too long in his arms. “Um, Kylo, you can… you can let go of me now.”

Kylo immediately set her up right, then stood up to his full height, “Sorry.”

“No, don’t be… if you hadn’t caught me I would’ve fallen in the snow,” she told him, wrapping her blanket more tightly around her shoulders, “Thank you.”

He gave her a gentle nod, “You're welcome.”

Before either of them could say anything else, two of the guards patrolling the yard were rushing over to where Rey had just been pushed, and Kylo watched the other three blanch at the sight. He was fairly certain he’d gone pale too as they approached the group of four, “Is something going on over here?” One asked.

Kylo opened his mouth to speak, then he watched Rey shake her head, “No, I tripped, that’s all, we’re fine.”

The guards looked at her suspiciously. Well, he couldn’t see what their faces looked like through the masks they always wore, but he could tell by their posture that they didn’t believe her words. Still, he hoped that they’d accept it. He didn’t fancy drawing attention to themselves this early on, and this encounter was already doing too much of that.

“Was that the way of it?” The guard asked, turning to Finn, Poe and Kylo, who didn’t even have to look at each other to nod that this was indeed what happened, that it hadn’t been anything else but a simple misstep.

After seeing their response, the guard seemed satisfied, and he nodded at the other guard before the two walked away, though they kept the four in their line of sight at all times.

“That was too close,” Poe said, watching them go, “We need to be extremely careful from now on.”

“Sorry, that was my fault,” Rey replied, a look of guilt crossing her features, “I just… I wanted to see the snow.”

“We know, Rey,” Finn said reassuringly.

Kylo crossed his arms over his chest, “We have to be careful. If we draw too much attention to ourselves… we’ve all got a lot to hide…” he checked to make sure no one was listening before he lowered his voice, “We’re some of the most valuable members of our respective sides. I’m the supreme leader, Rey’s the last Jedi. Finn knows things about both sides since he used to be a stormtrooper, and Poe? You’re… General Organa’s right hand man. If they can get that out of us…”

“We’re screwed,” Finn finished, gulping as they stared at each other, the snow whipping around them as another chill settled in, only this one wasn’t from the cold, but from fear.

 

 


	4. Light in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Poe, I think he’s told us enough,” Finn replied, “I don’t trust him either, but… There’s not much we can do. Let it go.”
> 
> Poe shook his head, stubborn to the last as he crossed his arms, “I still don’t trust him.”
> 
> Once again, Rey stepped up to his defense, walking up to Kylo’s side, and giving Poe more of her stern gaze, “I don’t trust him much either, but… with what I’ve seen… I’ve spent more time with him than any of us. I’ve…” she looked back at him, and without her having to say anything, he knew what she wanted to tell him. “We need to tell them what happened on the Supremacy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh I keep having errors posting this but hopefully it works this time.

 

  
They were ushered back inside several minutes later when the winds picked up and the snow was biting into their faces. Each of them made certain that they kept notice of the details of the prison as they walked. Everything was the exact same, only they walked the path in reverse.

Kylo was relieved to find that they were allowing them to keep the scratchy blankets they’d been given in the outside yard. He hadn’t wanted to surrender his one shred of warmth in this miserable hellhole he’d found himself in.

As soon as their cell door closed, Poe turned to face the others, “We need to figure out how to get the keys off the guard,” he said, keeping his voice at a whisper as other guards ushered their fellow prisoners to cells, “We won’t make it very far if we can’t do that.”

A hum of assent was given from his fellow prisoners, then Finn spoke first, “I think one of them kept his in his belt, if we could manage to bump into him…”

“That’s a good plan, but we need to be quiet, the guards haven’t left the corridor yet, and we don’t know how sound proof these walls are,” Rey replied, looking outside of their cell through its window nervously.

Poe opened his mouth to say something else, but Kylo shushed him, and he received a stare that looked like it could kill. He elected to ignore it, and held up a hand in a motion that asked for silence. He held it up for the next several minutes until the guards were gone, Poe glaring at him the entire time. The stare didn’t bother him. He’d definitely given far worse to others, but something about it let him know that the moment the guards were clear, he was going to be given hell.

He’d been correct in his assumptions about Poe. The minute his hand was put down, the resistance commander looked like he was just avoiding shouting as he berated Kylo.

“I was about to say, we were fine,” Poe growled, then he paused, letting the silence of the prison, and the returned howling of the winds outside enter their ears, “Listen to the storm outside. The way we were talking, there’s no way they would’ve heard us.”

“I was being cautious. If it was too much, then I’m sorry. In case you’ve forgotten, if we start anything, they’ll come for us. And,” he lowered his voice further, “I don’t need to remind you how bad it would be if they found out who we are.”

Poe was still glaring at him, and he sighed, walking over to the bed, and sitting down on it. If he was going to continue this conversation, he might as well have some semblance of comfort. He crossed his arms over his chest, and motioned for Poe to continue.

All he received in return was an angry scoff, “It wouldn’t be so bad if they found out who you were.”

Before Kylo could react, Rey stepped between them once again, ever the voice of reason. “Poe, we’re under a truce, stop it,” Rey said, giving him a stern look as she stepped toward him, “You don’t need to like it, but you need to honor it.”

The commander sighed, “Rey I want to, but truces only work when you can trust people, and I can’t trust him, not after what he did to me—to us.”

“He wants to help us escape, and he said all of us,” Rey replied, surprising Kylo by how she stepped up to his defense.

“Rey we know one thing about him, he’s a terrible person. I bet whatever he was doing when he got captured was probably mind-torturing some innocent civilian.”

“That’s not true!” Kylo shouted, standing up quickly, then he froze, unsure how to explain to them what he’d been doing there. He’d only gone to that mess of a planet because it was the farthest away from the war, and he didn’t want to be caught before he could find the resistance, find Rey, tell her he’d changed his mind. But then he had been captured, and suddenly he was unsure of himself again. Apparently no planet was too far away from the war for their captors.

Once he woke up next to them on the ship, he’d elected to come up with some sort of lie to avoid rousing suspicion of his true purpose on the planet. He would tell them he was on a different planet, or that planet’s moon, running a mission undercover for the first order, and that would remain his story unless he was persuaded to go with the resistance once they were free.

“I wasn’t there to torture anyone. I was… on a neighboring planet to the one they found you on. It was an undercover mission for the First Order. I was tying up some loose ends from the demise of Snoke three months ago.”

Despite how convincing he’d thought the lie was outwardly, he could sense Rey’s doubt coming over him in waves. She was certainly the one person he could never hide anything from, but with the amount of secrets already shared between them, he felt certain she wouldn’t say anything until the next time they were alone. The next time they woke up beside each other to find she’d moved in her sleep, and had thrown an arm around him in the night to pull him clos—

He dared not finish that thought, instead, he looked up at Poe to see if his words had roused any sort of trust in the other man, but it didn’t seem to help. Finn on the other hand looked more like he believed him, and that gave him a slight sense of relief.

“What was your mission?” Finn asked, his voice curious, but there was no malice in it.

Kylo froze. He hadn’t thought through the lie that far. Mentally, he slapped himself for being so foolish, but Snoke had been right about one thing. He had too much of his father’s heart in him, which meant he had the classic Solo talent of making up absolute bull shit on the spot. “It was just to make sure a small alliance was secure once leadership had changed. Nothing more. I got to the planet, got off my ship, took a wrong turn into an alley and I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up and they were dragging your unconscious bodies onto the ship.”

“What was the alliance?” Poe asked, once again encroaching on Kylo as he spoke, “Who was it with? What was the planet?”

“Poe, I think he’s told us enough,” Finn replied, “I don’t trust him either, but… There’s not much we can do. Let it go.”

Poe shook his head, stubborn to the last as he crossed his arms, “I still don’t trust him.”

Once again, Rey stepped up to his defense, walking up to Kylo’s side, and giving Poe more of her stern gaze, “I don’t trust him much either, but… with what I’ve seen… I’ve spent more time with him than any of us. I’ve…” she looked back at him, and without her having to say anything, he knew what she wanted to tell him. “We need to tell them what happened on the Supremacy.”

Kylo felt his breath shudder as he exhaled, the memory of that day, simultaneously glorious and terrible, flashing through his mind. The way she’d come to him without him having to ask, how it had felt when he’d driven his grandfather’s saber through Snoke, the rush he felt within the force as he fought by her side, and the heartbreak he’d felt when she’d rejected his proposal. He felt it all flash before his eyes, and when they met hers, he could tell she was thinking much the same.

“What happened on the Supremacy?” Finn asked, breaking his minutes long silence as he stepped forward, standing beside Rey and Poe.

“You’ll want to sit down for this one,” Kylo replied, running a hand through his hair as he looked awkwardly at the floor, then he sat down on his bed, Rey joining him a moment later.

Finn and Poe looked at each other cautiously, then back at Kylo and Rey, “Why?” the asked at the same time.

“This we do need to be quiet for,” she replied, then she motioned to the floor on the far side of the cell, the one with the window everyone but her seemed to be able to see out of. The four quickly, but quietly padded over to it, and they sat down in a diamond shaped huddle.

She looked at Kylo, and he took in a deep breath, “By now I’m sure the entire galaxy knows that Rey was on the Supremacy that day. And she came in an escape pod from the Millenium Falcon hoping to bring me back to the light.”

Finn and Poe both nodded, having been told this story many times in various resistance meetings in the three months since Snoke’s death.

“Then you both know that she killed Snoke, or at least, that’s what you were told…” he paused, then he looked over at Rey for reassurance, which she gave to him in the form of an almost sad smile, “Because that’s what I told Hux when I woke up after we fought over Luke’s lightsaber.”

Finn’s eyes went wide, and Poe’s furrowed in confusion as they visibly considered the implications of Kylo’s statement. “So who killed Snoke, then?” Finn asked.

“I did,” Kylo said, “I killed him.”

“You did what now?” Poe said in disbelief.

Kylo met his eyes, “I killed him so I wouldn’t have to kill Rey.” He spared her a glance as he spoke, doing his best not to note the blush in her cheeks.

“And then we fought like hell,” Rey added, an almost gleeful look in her eyes as the memory ghosted over her, “We fought his guards side by side until every last one of them was dead. And at the end of it, I thought he was back, that he was Ben Solo again, but,” she looked over at him sadly, “I was wrong. Instead of joining the resistance with me he pr— offered for me to rule the galaxy with him. It was all about letting the past die… And I didn’t want the same things, so we fought for the saber with the force, and it knocked us both unconscious.”

“When I woke up she was gone.” Kylo looked down at his fidgeting hands, remembering how he’d felt when he’d found Hux standing over him instead of Rey, wishing when he’d woken up that he’d have one last chance to ask her to join him. “And general Hux was there.”

“My favorite person,” Poe muttered, earning him a slight chuckle from Kylo.

“Looks like we do have something in common after all.”

The two men shared a brief laugh over their mutual dislike for Hux, who had been one of the primary reasons Kylo had considered leaving the first order and gotten himself into this mess in the first place. Their laughter was cut short by Finn, who interrupted them with a single important question, “But why did you do it? Why would you kill him over Rey? I thought you two hated each other.”

Kylo looked at Rey again, knowing damn well he didn’t hate her and he was fairly certain he never had, not even when he’d vowed to destroy her. He couldn’t be bonded to her the way he was and hate her. He would’ve been driven insane. Sure, there was dislike in their feelings toward each other a lot of the time, but never hatred. That was something he was fairly certain they could both agree on. They didn’t hate each other.

He sensed that he was right from the feeling of agreement he felt over the bond. It would seem he was absolutely terrible at hiding his emotions from her. He’d have to work on that.

Rey’s emotions quickly turned to worry, however, and he frowned as he wondered what was bothering her now. “Should we explain to them about the…?” she gestured between them, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Finn clutch his chest as if he were scandalized.

Kylo breathed deeply, then he leaned toward her slightly, and whispered, “Can you promise me they can be trusted with this?” She gave him a nod. “Then yes, we should probably tell them about what’s happened between us. It’s the only way for any of this to make sense.”

When he turned away, Finn’s hand was still clutching his chest as he’d seen high society women clutch their pearls in his childhood. It became apparent to him then that with Rey’s vague words and his even more vague words on top of it, their mental connection suddenly seemed like a torrid affair out of context. Before he could deny it, Poe leaned forward and asked them outright, “Were you and… Kylo Ren… did you… with…” it was a lot of stuttered words, vague gestures, and pointing, but eventually his point was gotten across to Rey, who promptly turned beet red.

“No!” she shouted, then she cringed at the way her voice echoed around the prison, even with the storm’s winds outside blanketing the noise. She lowered her voice before she spoke again, “No, it’s nothing like that. We’ve never… No… I wouldn’t even think about it.”

Kylo smirked at the exaggerated denial, “No, we haven’t had sex, Poe, we’re not talking about an affair.”

“Then what is it?” Finn asked, letting go of the iron grip he had on his metaphorical pearls as he realized that Rey was not in fact having an affair with the supreme leader.

Rey looked nervous, fingers twitching in her lap as she prepared to speak, leaning closely into their huddle as she whispered, “We can’t use the force, or we would’ve been out of here a long time ago, but… We can feel it around us. Well, just one part of it. There is one thing we can still feel in the force.”

Poe leaned forward eagerly, looking at her with encouraging eyes as he willed her to go on, “What is it, Rey?”

She and Kylo exchanged a look, then he gave her a nod, and Rey sighed, “I don’t know how to explain this, but something… happened between Ben—Kylo— and I. Something in the force… awakened between us, and now we’re…”

“Connected,” Kylo finished, his eyes meeting hers once more, “Through the force.”

“And that’s the one thing we can feel right now, that connection.”

“What do you mean, you’re ‘connected?’” Finn asked, staring at them with his mouth agape.

Kylo ran a hand awkwardly through his hair, “Neither of us is sure, but somehow former Supreme Leader Snoke bridged our minds, at least, he claimed to.”

“All we know is we now see each other at random, completely unexpected moments,” Rey said, “He’ll appear to me randomly wherever I am. Whether it’s in a meeting with one of you or in the privacy of my own quarters.”

“It gets awkward when you’re trying to shower.”

Rey blushed at this, the sight of the flush to her cheeks gave Poe cause to raise his eyebrows some, though he said nothing.

Finn on the other hand did not remain as silent, “I didn’t need to know that.”

The commander laughed, “Which one of you saw the other naked, then? Was it you, Rey?”

Her cheeks flushed further, and she nodded, “I didn’t look!” She said quickly, “As soon as I realized what was happening—”

“She screamed,” Kylo interrupted, then he chuckled as Rey hit him with the back of her hand.

“Maybe I did, but you froze.”

Kylo rolled his eyes violently toward the ceiling, but he couldn’t deny the truth. He had indeed frozen in place when she saw him walking out of the shower.

Poe had a confused, but teasing look on his face as he stared between the two of them, and Kylo almost feared what he would say next. “So what, you just see each other? No matter where you are? Even on opposite ends of the galaxy?”

Kylo and Rey both nodded, and through the very bond they were speaking about he knew she felt the same as he did about the weight of their secret being lifted from their shoulders. “No matter where we are, what we’re doing it happens,” Kylo explained, “The first time it happened, neither of us knew what was going on and she shot me with a blaster. It didn’t do anything.”

“Worth a try,” Rey replied sarcastically, causing the corners of Kylo’s mouth to twitch into a grin.

“And that connection… that’s why you chose to save her and kill Snoke?” Finn inquired.

They both nodded, “It was only over a couple of days, and the first few times it happened I was angry at him,” Rey said, “But by the end I had hope that his choice hadn’t actually been made. I thought I could save him. I’m still not sure if I was wrong.”

Kylo swallowed as she finished her words, the open-endedness of her statement unnerving him. She was giving him the opportunity to tell her whether she’d been correct or not right that moment, but he was still uncertain of it himself. In that instant, he was still frozen between the light and the dark, unsure of whether he’d return to the first order once this was over, or if he’d follow them to the resistance and beg forgiveness.

“I’m not sure either,” he replied honestly, feeling the same sense of nervous delight he’d felt when they’d touched hands through the force in his chambers, and she’d been bathed in the light of a fire he couldn’t see.

Rey gave him an understanding nod, then she looked at the others, “Do you still feel the same way?” she asked Poe.

The commander was silent for several seconds on end, then he gave Rey a soft smile, and shook his head, “No.” He then locked eyes with Kylo, “I still don’t trust you, not completely, but I won’t forget what you did for her. That means something. You’re not as bad of a man as everyone thinks you are.”

For once, Kylo Ren was stunned into silence. He’d never expected to hear those words from Poe of all people, who he knew resented him more than anything.

The group was silent for several minutes more, reflecting on what they’d just discussed for minutes on end. Nothing but the howling of the wind outside was heard for a long while. Eyes met the floor and deep breaths were taken.

Kylo’s emotions were all over the place. He’d never been more uncertain of his destiny than he was in this moment, sitting in a cell with three key members of the resistance with the weight of his and Rey’s secret loose from his shoulders. He felt free and trapped at the same time, and not just because of his prisoner status.

He glanced over at Rey, her own turbulent emotions flooding through their connection, mimicking his in the manner of her uncertainty. But he could also sense within her a feeling of trust, and another that typically accompanied her flushed cheeks brimming underneath the surface that he couldn’t quite put a label on.

His breath caught when Rey looked up at him, and their eyes met once again, a sense of solidarity passing between them. For the first time since they’d been forced together, she gave him a small, closed mouth smile, which grew wider when he returned it.

They were brought back to reality by chattering teeth, which came from Finn’s direction this time. Kylo turned to see the former stormtrooper wrapping his blanket more tightly around himself. “You know, as nice as this has been… it’s warmer over there.” He pointed to where their beds were.

Poe laughed, “Any excuse to get me in bed, huh?”

Finn scoffed, “You wish,” he replied, then he stood up, and walked over to the bed. The others quickly followed suit, and Poe sat down beside him a moment later, the two sitting hip to hip.

It was definitely warmer on that side of the room, farther from the wall that shielded them from the harsh storm outside. Kylo sat down on the foot of the bed, and Rey sat up by the one pillow they were forced to share.

“I wonder how long we have until dinner now,” Rey said, thrumming her fingers on the edge of the bed.

“It’s an hour from breakfast to our time outside, one more hour outside, and it’s been… a good hour or so since then,” Kylo replied, “My best guess is we have a while.”

Finn’s head made contact with the wall behind him, “Guess we better find a way to pass the time, then.”

“Guess so,” Rey said.

They spent the next several hours in periods of both silence and conversation. At one point the wind howled particularly loudly, causing Poe to comment his sarcastic hopes that it would bring down the prison, and the four of them shared a laugh.

Later on, with still no sign of dinner coming any time soon, Rey elected to take advantage of their free time, and take a nap. “We’re going to need all the energy we can get,” she explained as she climbed beneath the sheets, and turned toward the wall.

Kylo in the meanwhile took it upon himself to ask the guard if he could use the restroom, wanting to get a better view of the prison more so than needing to use it. His request was mercifully granted, and he was led out of their cell in handcuffs once more. The path he took to the prison’s facilities was similar to that of the path to their outdoor yard. He once again passed by that cold spot, the breeze making him shiver involuntarily in front of the guard.

The restrooms were located one left and two rights down from the cold spot, and were rather far away from the cell. As he was marched in, he was told he had five minutes in there to himself, then he was locked inside.

Within the bathroom was of course the expected toilet and sink, but also windows on a surprising three sides of the room, and it was surprisingly colder here than even the cold spot near their cell. Kylo made quick work of examining the room, gauging how tall the windows were—each one was at about his chest height, and went up a few inches above his head—and how each one opened—there was a locking mechanism on the outside, if only he could use the force, then he could be out of there.

He pressed a palm against the glass, and pushed lightly, noticing that the glass shifted within its frame. Whoever had made this window hadn’t done the greatest job, but they’d also given him his greatest hope for an escape route so far.

Taking a step back, Kylo began examining the other three windows, finding they were much the same. The one thing that worried him about his newfound escape plan, was that he couldn’t see outside of any of the windows beyond where the snow brushed against their surface. In the same way he couldn’t see anything outside of the one in his own cell, he couldn’t see anything here.

It was then that a very important but very concerning thought came to him. What if that was because the prison was situated at a great height? It hadn’t seemed possible given that they’d entered at ground level and hadn’t gone up any stairs or been in an elevator of any sort, but if the prison was located on the edge of a cliff, that would explain why they hadn’t been able to see anything in the dark except for snow.

If they were indeed situated on a cliff that would make exiting from these windows extremely difficult, not to mention the fact that only one of them was allowed inside at a time. This would leave only one of them able to escape, and perhaps that person could manage to get off world and inform their side, but it was more likely they’d just get caught and the entire group would be in a world of trouble.

Three minutes later the guard returned, and he was led back to his cell in silence, welcoming the warmer air that greeted him the moment he left the bathroom.

When he returned and was uncuffed, Rey and Poe were both sleeping away the afternoon, and Finn was lying there simply staring at the ceiling. The two exchanged an awkward nod as Kylo sat down on his bed, trying his best not to wake up Rey as he laid down beside her, wishing he could give her more space than he did. There was only so much one could do when their bed was only a little bigger than he was.

Like Finn, he too stared up at the ceiling, thinking about everything and nothing all at once. Eventually, though, he must’ve drifted off. Next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by Rey, and it was dinnertime.

The four waited until all of the guards were gone, then they spoke in hushed tones about all they’d observed that day. Kylo told them about his discovery with the windows, which both excited and worried the other three at the same time. The prospect of having a potential escape route excited each of them, but the drawback to the window’s potential as an escape route was too much, and they began exploring other options.

As their dinner went on, the chill that always accompanied the prison grew colder, and even Kylo was rubbing at his arms beneath his blanket as he glanced at their window to see snow piling up against it. By the time the guards had come to collect their plates, the four were in a huddle by Poe and Finn’s bed, barely any space between them. Poe didn’t even give Kylo a snide comment or complain about their proximity, each of them was too miserable to focus on anything but how cold they were.

“How does it manage to keep getting colder?” Finn asked, visibly agitated by the sight of the snow outside.

Rey shook her head, “I d-don’t know,” she replied, “I grew up in the desert, I w-wasn’t made f-for this.”

“Hang in there, we’ll get through this, we always do,” Poe said encouragingly, “We’ll just have to get really close tonight.”

At the sound of those words, Kylo and Rey froze. Sharing a bed had been one thing, and waking up to Rey accidentally spooning him had been another, but to consciously be forced to cuddle? That was something else entirely, and judging by the anxiety being sent to him through their bond, Rey was feeling much the same way.

Kylo wasn’t sure what they were going to do about their icy situation, but one thing was certain: it was going to be a very long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and chapter five were meant to go together but if they did the chapter would’ve been damn near 10k so they’re getting broken up. Five will probably be here tomorrow.


	5. Frozen Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I told you so.”
> 
> “Shut up.”
> 
> She could feel Kylo’s smug grin through the bond, even if she couldn’t see it, and she scoffed, “Wipe that smile off your face, you won the battle, not the war.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention in the last chapter's notes that I wrote chapter four entirely in my university library on one of their computers. Pretty sure I got caught by a custodian, but you gotta write when you gotta write.

When they went to bed two hours later, the storm had grown worse, the cold growing more intense by the minute. The four huddled beneath their respective sheets and blankets. Well, Finn and Poe certainly did. Kylo and Rey had resumed the previous evening’s back to back position since neither was quite desperate enough to hold the other for warmth yet. 

 

Rey shivered against the cold, wrapping her blanket as tightly around herself as she was able to, but it was no use, she was freezing. The cold had her deep in its clutches, and it wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon. 

 

Beside her, Kylo stirred, his deep voice piercing the silence that had fallen over the cell, “Rey, Are you cold?”

 

“N-no,” She stuttered out, cursing under her breath at how obvious her lie was. Not that she’d had much hope at selling it in the first place, given that she’d been shivering since before they’d gotten into their pathetic excuse for a bed. 

 

She felt the bed shift, then she knew Kylo was lying down on his left side now, and his gaze was on her. She gulped as she felt his anxiety through their bond, though what he was nervous about now, aside from their impending escape plans, she had no idea. All she knew was that she could practically hear his heart rate rise rapidly as he spoke. 

 

“We should probably…” he paused, as if searching for the right words, “Get closer, share body heat.”

 

She froze, “I’m sure that’s not necessary,” she replied, shifting closer to the wall at first, then shifting back when she realized that what little warmth she had was fading the further away she got from him. He was right, sharing body heat was exactly what they both needed right then. 

 

With a groan, she turned to face him, and gave him a resigned nod, “So how do we do this?”

 

While she could barely see him, she knew he had a great, big smirk on his face that she’d be delighted to slap off any other night, but tonight she needed him. As much as it pained her to admit it, she definitely needed him. 

 

“Just come here,” was all he said, then she hesitantly obeyed, slowly moving into his arms. 

 

She didn’t say a word as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer than she’d ever thought possible for them, and entwining his legs with hers. Warmth flowed through her and she let out a breath of relief into his chest, then her cheeks flushed when she felt the deep chuckle rise from within him. 

 

“I told you so.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

She could feel Kylo’s smug grin through the bond, even if she couldn’t see it, and she scoffed, “Wipe that smile off your face, you won the battle, not the war.”

 

Kylo’s confusion filtered through now, though it was quickly followed by realization, “I can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

 

It was Rey’s turn to laugh, “Not a thing,” she replied, then she frowned, “Though I suppose I can’t hide anything from you, either.”

 

Kylo remained silent for a moment, and she felt his mind just at the edge of hers, “No, we can’t hide anything from each other now.” There was another pause before he spoke again, “I could feel it when he tortured you, when Snoke... I could feel your pain. It… I’m sorry I didn’t kill him sooner.”

 

Rey didn’t know how to respond to that, her thoughts all raving past her in a blur before she could form anything coherent. The apology struck true, there was no hint that he was lying through the bond. The man lying beside her continued to completely surprise her. She rested a hand on his arm, and sighed, “You were under his control for years, it was always going to take time to pull you out of it.”

 

“I’m sorry it took so long.”

 

Rey shook her head, “It’s alright,” she said, then they fell silent for a moment, and she giggled as an unexpectedly coherent thought entered her mind, “At least we can’t read each other’s minds. I wouldn’t want to know what  _ you’re _ thinking.”

 

They both laughed at this, and for a moment Rey was concerned they’d woken Finn and Poe, but then she heard their voices whispering on the other side of the room, drowned out by the wind of the snow storm. This planet’s bad weather continued to work to her advantage—some of the time—and she wasn’t half mad at it. 

 

“I wouldn’t want to know what  _ you’re  _ thinking either,” Kylo said, then he shifted his head in the pillow, “I guess that’s the one thing we do know about this… bond… Everything else is just...”

 

“Confusing?”

 

“Yeah. Confusing.”

 

Rey shifted her head against his chest so that she was looking up at the ceiling, his heartbeat thudding in her ears. The position felt a little too intimate, and she quickly returned to keeping her face against him, “I thought it would end after you killed Snoke,” she said, “I didn’t think it could go on without him.”

 

“Do you think it’s possible he was lying?” Kylo asked, voice contemplative as his breath ghosted over the top of her head, “What if it wasn’t him who started this?”

 

“Who else would it be?”

 

“... I don’t know,” Kylo admitted, then she felt the hand he had wrapped around her waist on her back, pulling her ever so slightly more against him. A hint of delight washed over the bond, and she knew it wasn’t hers. 

 

“Maybe he created it, but maybe he started something that couldn’t be stopped,” she suggested, her own heart rate increasing at this point as she felt for Kylo’s emotions through their bond. He was definitely considering the possibility. 

 

“Rey, if it was him…”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“It’s the one thing he did right,” he paused for a long moment, the silence overwhelmingly loud between them until he spoke again, “I’m glad he did it. You’re not the worst person to have in my head.”

 

Rey’s emotions went into overdrive, and she wasn’t sure which one she felt the strongest. For some odd reason, Kylo’s happiness at being bonded to her filled her with a similar sense of glee instead of the anger she’d been expecting when she first heard the words. She didn’t know what it was, but something about the words “I’m glad he did,” echoing through her mind sent her blushing, though she hoped he couldn’t see that in the dark. 

 

He could, however, sense her emotions thanks to their up until this point mercifully still intact bond. Now the damn thing was a curse. At least, it would be if Kylo managed to keep saying the right things, instilling feelings of hope and one other emotion she’d barely ever felt before and couldn’t even label into her with his words. 

 

She attempted to push those emotions down, but it was definitely too late. Kylo had noticed, his breath shaking as he inhaled, and this time she suspected it wasn’t from the cold. 

 

“We need to work on keeping our emotions quiet,” he said softly, though he didn’t tense as he registered her emotions, which sent relief coursing through her that she knew he probably felt as well.

 

She gave him a nod, “Agreed,” she replied, then she yawned into his chest. The memory of the time he’d appeared to her shirtless on Ahch-To boiled under the surface, but she pushed it down, knowing if she thought of it she’d only become flustered as she always did, and him knowing that she became flustered around him was the last thing she needed. 

 

Rey worked to keep her emotions neutral, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said about being glad it was her he was bonded to. She giggled lightly into his chest as a thought came into her mind, then brought a hand up to stifle her laugh. 

 

“What’s so funny?”

 

“I’m just wondering who would be worse for you to be bonded with than me.” She looked up at his face, only to find it inches from hers, and she looked back down. They weren’t on a level yet where she could hold his gaze when they were that close. She wasn’t even sure she wanted them to be. 

 

Kylo—or did it even feel right to call him that anymore—hummed above her, the noise resonating deep within his chest, where one of Rey’s hands was currently residing, “Hux. Definitely Hux.”

 

Rey properly laughed at that answer, for it had been the last thing she’d been expecting. She had expected for him to say someone from her side, not his. “Why Hux? He’s on your side. Why not someone from the Resistance?” 

 

“Have you met Hux?”

 

“That’s fair, but why do you keep him around, then?”

 

“He’s not a bad general” Kylo explained, motioning with his hand before resting it over Rey’s waist once again, “And his men are loyal to him. I don’t want them to stage a coup or leave.”

 

“Makes sense.”

 

“Poe’s definitely my second choice, don’t worry.”

 

“He’s not that bad.”

 

“He’s made it his mission to get on my nerves every chance he gets.”

 

Rey sighed, “Poe’s learning to trust you, and given your history, it won’t be easy for him. Give him time.”

 

“I thought telling him I killed Snoke would help,” Kylo protested. 

 

“It was a start, Yes,” she replied, her fingers toying with the material of his shirt cautiously, “But you’ve still got a way to go before any of us trust you completely.”

 

Kylo paused for a long moment after that. Through the bond she could tell he was contemplating something, warring with himself internally over how to answer her. She looked up at him again, seeing the uncertainty on his face with her own eyes. He wasn’t looking at her now, he was staring at the wall. 

 

“Something on your mind?”

 

He shook his head, “No, it’s nothing,” he replied, though the lie was obvious in his voice, then he turned down and looked at her, eyes meeting for only a second before Rey turned her head back into his chest, a flush of red growing on her cheeks, “But, Rey?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“I’ll earn your trust, and Poe’s, and Finn’s. I promise we’ll get out of here. All of us.” There was an unspoken together at the end of that sentence, but she understood it’s meaning all the same. 

 

She gave him a smile, knowing that while he couldn’t see it, he could at least sense it through the bond, then she yawned audibly, “I’m getting tired.”

 

“So am I,” Kylo replied, then the two fell quiet for a moment, taking in all they’d just said. 

 

“Good night again, Rey.”

 

“Good night,” she whispered softly, then she lowered her voice even more, all the way to the point where she was fairly certain he couldn’t hear it, “Ben.”

 

There was a pause, then she felt contentment through their bond. For once, she knew he was alright with being called his given name, not the moniker he’d chosen under the First Order. Perhaps there was hope for Ben Solo, yet. She knew she had been right not to give up on him, she’d known since the vision of the future she’d received when they touched hands. 

 

She couldn’t help but think, maybe that future had a chance after all. The thought sent a smile on her face as she wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him tighter against her. 

 

If Ben was thinking up a sarcastic remark, he said nothing, he simply continued to hold her as they warmed each other through the cold. It then became clear to her that something had shifted between them that day. From the moment she’d woken up with him in her arms, they were changing. 

 

She’d expected when she woke up that morning to be angry with him, especially after all he’d done, and the last three months of hell where they hadn’t spoken to one another, but she’d found herself to be anything but angry. Maybe she was a little annoyed, but it didn’t go beyond that. 

 

Then he kept surprising her throughout the day, actually making himself useful, opening himself up to Finn and Poe. Both of which were things he really didn’t have to do, but he’d done them anyway. For the first time that day, she saw a glimpse of the man who’d sat with her by a fire just listening to her talk, and told her she wasn’t alone. Ben Solo was back, at least in some, small capacity, he was back, and Kylo Ren was gone, for now. 

 

For the first time since their capture, Rey found herself falling peacefully into sleep, lulled under by the sound of Ben’s breathing beside her, and the warmth of his body spreading over her like a blanket. 

 

—————————

 

Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Finn and Poe were huddled together tightly as they’d been the previous night. The two were having a discussion of their own as the sounds of the storm drowned their voices from Kylo and Rey’s listening ears. 

 

“I just can’t believe he killed Snoke,” Finn said quietly, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure that Kylo and Rey weren’t listening. Mercifully, they seemed to be having a conversation of their own. “I was with him for a while, in the first order. He never showed any sign that he was going to betray the old supreme leader.”

 

“He was always wearing a mask, Finn, it’s impossible to know what people are thinking when they’re wearing a mask,” Poe replied sleepily, cuddling his half of the pillow like his life depended on it. 

 

Finn hummed his agreement, “All I ever knew him for when I was there was his passion for destroying things.”

 

Poe smirked as their eyes met in the dark, “I think he has a passion for something else now,” he said teasingly, then he looked up and over Finn, and his jaw dropped. 

 

Before Finn could ask him what was wrong, Poe’s head dropped back to the pillow, and he stifled his laughter into it. “Oh my god.”

 

Finn’s eyebrows furrowed, “What? What’s so funny?”

 

Poe continued to laugh into the pillow for another minute. By the time he pulled his face away, even in the dark, Finn could tell he was turning red from having laughed too hard. He waited patiently while his commander gathered himself, then proved him for an answer again. 

 

“Don’t look now, but Rey and Kylo…” he lost himself to laughter again and Finn’s eyes widened. 

 

“I’m definitely not looking.”

 

“No, no,” Poe said, finally managing to compose himself, “They’re holding each other. Very tightly, I want to point out.”

 

Finn waited another moment, then he slowly turned around to find that Kylo and Rey were in fact holding each other. Kylo’s arms were wrapped tightly around Rey, and just beneath the howling winds of the snowstorm outside, he could hear them talking. Whatever they were saying was drowned out, but going by the tones of their voices, it wasn’t an unpleasant conversation. 

 

“You think something’s going on there?” Finn asked curiously as he turned back to Poe, noting that they were almost as close as Rey and Kylo appeared to be. “Think they were lying earlier when they said nothing like that had happened?”

 

Poe shook his head, “No, I believe them that nothing’s happened  _ yet,  _ but…” he looked back at the others, then at Finn again, “I think there’s definitely  _ something  _ there.”

 

Finn nodded slowly, then he shivered slightly as the cold in the room grew more intense. He heard Rey and Kylo laughing on the other side of the room, the sound surprising him after all the years he’d gone knowing Kylo as a man seemingly hell bent on destruction. But that had been under Snoke’s guidance, and since he’d killed him… since he’d been bonded to Rey… he’d seen much less of that side of him, the darker side of him. 

 

“Do you think it’s possible that he’s changing, Poe?”

 

Poe scratched his head, then when he put his arm down, he rubbed Finn’s arm gently to try and warm him up, an effort that was greatly appreciated. “Possible? Sure, I think Rey could bring out the best in anyone. Hell, we’re all trapped here, and the situation is bad, Finn, don’t get me wrong, but it’d be much worse if she weren’t here with us.”

 

It was Finn’s turn to smirk, “Maybe you’re the one that’s into Rey.”

 

Poe chuckled, “No. She’s great, but she’s definitely not the member of the resistance that’s got my eye.”

 

“Who is?”

 

“I’ll tell you when we get out of here. Deal?”

 

“Deal.”

 

Finn sighed as Poe’s hand continued to toy with the fabric of his prison shirt, “I can’t wait to get out of here. I miss food that doesn’t taste like it came out of a toilet. I miss not knowing that Rey’s seen Kylo Ren naked. I miss not having that image burned in my brain.”

 

Poe damn near cackled at that last sentence, once again quieting his laughter with the pillow. When he finished this time, he looked up at Finn, “I miss that, too, but don’t worry, we’ll be out of here before you know it.”

 

“I don’t know, Poe. We don’t know what these guys are capable of. They’ve got some kind of… block so that Rey and Kylo can’t use the force. Whoever they are, they mean business. They’re not gonna let us go so easily.”

 

The commander scoffed light heartedly, “No one said it would be easy, that’s why we’re looking at every possible exit.”

 

“But how are we gonna get out of here once we’re out of the prison? What are we going to do to get off planet?”

 

Poe fell silent beside him, the uncertainty blatantly displayed on his features as he contemplated Finn’s question. None of them, Finn included, had thought up what they were going to do once they’d freed themselves from the prison. They had no idea where the nearest ship was, or what had happened to the ships each of them had taken to the location of their capture. 

 

Getting out of the prison was one thing. Getting off the planet was an entirely different venture altogether. As brave as Finn knew they all were, it would only get them so far in their attempts to escape. 

 

“We’ve escaped from a strange prison before, though,” Poe said after a while, “Remember the day you deserted the first order and we stole a TIE fighter?”

 

Finn laughed softly, “That was a good day.”

 

“Yeah, damn shame I lost my jacket though.”

 

“I offered to give it back!”

 

“It suited you,” Poe replied, a warm smile on his face as he looked at Finn.

 

It was then that the former stormtrooper realized maybe things weren’t just changing between Rey and Kylo, but between him and Poe as well. The thought sent waves of anxiety through him, but not the sort of anxiety that had one hurting all over. It was the good sort of anxiety. 

 

If they didn’t get out of that prison soon, though, Finn was going to have a new reason to lose his damn mind. 

 

“Sorry I can’t save you this time,” he said after a while, “Can’t exactly go undercover as a guard.”

 

Poe froze beside him, realization dawning on his face, “But what if you could? What if  _ we _ could?”

 

“What do you mean, Poe?”

 

“If we looked like the guard, we could get to any part of the prison we wanted to. We could get out. Finn, this could be the answer, you’re a genius.” Poe looked absolutely delighted as he came to this conclusion, looking for the first time like he genuinely had hope. 

 

Finn nodded, “Thanks, but how do we get their uniforms? Every time they come in here they handcuff us instantly.”

 

Poe grinned, “They only ever handcuff one of us at a time and when we’re just asking to go to the bathrooms, they only send two guards. If we just knock out two guards, two of us take their uniforms, and the other two masquerade as their prisoners.”

 

The plan started to become clear in Finn’s mind. He could see it working easily. All they’d have to do is choose who was a guard and who was a prisoner, then they’d have to work to find their way out. They still didn’t know the prison well enough yet, and that was their only problem. But Finn suspected that given another couple of days or so they would be well versed in the workings of the prison.

 

“That still leaves the problem of getting off the planet. We don’t even know what planet this is.”

 

“No, we don’t,” Poe said in agreement, then he looked off into the distance as if he were thinking about something, “But we know that we’ve been here for two days, and we haven’t seen this planet’s sun. That means something. If the storms would just clear up and we could get a good look at the stars… We could know something about where we are. At least, those of us who know their positions.”

 

“Do you know anything about star positions?”

 

“I know a little bit, not much, but it’s better than nothing,” Poe replied, then he looked back at Finn, “And anyway, I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to find one of their ships and steal it. From there we’d just have to haul ass out of here and boom. We’re free.”

 

Finn’s lips spread into a grin, then he gave his commander a nod, “Sounds like we have a plan, then.” 

 

“We have a plan,” Poe replied, then he gestured behind Finn, “We’ll tell them in the morning. For now, I don’t know about you but I’m going to get as much sleep as I can.”

 

“Why don’t we just tell them now?” Finn asked, “I heard them talking a minute ago, they’re probably still awake.”

 

Poe shrugged, then he tilted his head back up, and looked over at Kylo and Rey again. Just as he had the last time he’d looked over, he fell into a heap of laughter on the pillow. Apparently something else had happened in the ten minutes since they’d last checked in on their friend and unlikely ally. “I don’t think they’re going to want to talk to us any time soon.”

 

Giving Poe an odd look, Finn then turned to look at just what scandalous thing Kylo and Rey were doing now. Nothing had changed much since he’d last looked at them, only this time he could see Rey’s arm slung over Kylo’s waist, pulling him tighter against her, and this time he noticed their legs were tangled together. He turned back to Poe, “They’re probably just trying to keep warm, Poe,” he said, though he was certainly suspicious of the proximity they now had to each other. 

 

The commander smirked, “I didn’t think  _ we _ held each other like that when we’re trying to keep warm.”

 

Finn chuckled, “What are you suggesting we try that?”

 

“I mean, if you’re offering… I think I’m a little cold.” Poe replied, grinning mischievously at Finn, who shook his head, and threw an arm around him to pull him closer, the bed instantly getting warmer. 

 

Finn sighed as he wrapped an arm around Poe’s waist, “That’s your worst line yet.”

 

“Oh, I’ve definitely said worse.”

 

Another laugh was shared between them, then Finn shifted his head on the pillow, and looked up at Poe, “We should probably get some sleep like you said.”

 

Poe gave him a nod, “Yeah, you’re right,” he replied, and the flick of his eyes to Finn’s lips was almost missed in the dark, but Finn said nothing as his friend said good night except for to speak it in return. With that, the two relaxed against their one, shared pillow, and closed their eyes. It took him a minute, but eventually Finn fell asleep to the sound of the howling storm outside, a sound he found himself slowly growing numb to as sleep took him in its clutches, and he drifted off.

  
  



	6. Poe’s Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know, after today I’m the second worst fighter in the resistance.”
> 
> Poe raised an eyebrow, “Who’s the worst, then?”
> 
> “You,” Finn teased, then he was met with a playful shove to his shoulder, and he laughed, “You’re better with ships, hand to hand combat isn’t for everybody.”
> 
> “That includes you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn y’all thanks for all the comments, I was shook. Anyway, here’s the last somewhat fluffy chapter for a while. We’re about to board the angst train.

  
The next morning, Finn woke up once again to the sound of thunder, the boom and subsequent shaking of the ground rousing him from his deep sleep. He groaned as he woke, attempting to cover his ears with the blanket before the next thunderclap, but it was no use, the damn storm was just too loud.

Poe was still somehow sound asleep beside him if the quiet snores he heard just beneath it all were anything to go by, and it occurred to Finn that in the night he’d shifted, and was now being spooned by his commander. He wasn’t exactly complaining. Poe was incredibly warm and quite possibly the only reason he hadn’t woken up shivering again, but it was slightly awkward all the same. Especially when he thought about the direction their conversation had nearly gone in the previous night.

Remembering the day before brought an unexpected smile to his face as he recalled the sheer amount of flirting that had gone down between himself and Poe. It had felt like the prison had melted away and it was just the two of them talking like they always did when they were sitting side by side at whatever base the resistance had moved to for the time being. He almost expected BB-8 to come rolling out from under somewhere and appear at Poe’s feet.

But that was an unfortunate impossibility. They were in a prison on some remote planet they couldn’t identify, and no one knew they were there. Finn wondered briefly what the resistance thought now that he, Rey, and Poe had been missing for three days. Where did they think they’d gone? What did they think happened? Did they think their friends and comrades were dead?

He thought of Rose and the fast friendship they’d struck up over the past three months, laughing and smiling with one another as if they’d been friends for years instead of the mere months it had been. He thought of General Organa and the worried crease between her eyes every time she sent them out for something, all too aware that each goodbye may well be the last. He thought of everyone else they’d left behind, the final few hundred members of the resistance scattered across the stars.

Another thought occurred to him then as the lightning lit up the room once more, illuminating the silhouette of Rey and Kylo on the bed across from him: what the hell did the first order think of their missing supreme leader? Had they already replaced him? Or were they searching the stars desperately trying to locate him as they kept things quiet so the resistance wouldn’t know anything was wrong?

All around them the universe was still going, still moving, and the war was still being fought, but they were trapped here. They couldn’t do anything. At least, they couldn’t do anything until his and Poe’s plan worked, and oh, how he hoped it would.

Another loud boom of thunder echoed throughout the walls of the prison, and what sounded like hail slamming down on the roof of the prison intensified. Yet the other three people in the room slept on to Finn’s disbelief and jealousy.

“I don’t know about you, but I think I’m getting really tired of waking up to this fucking thunder,” Poe said quietly beside him. Scratch that, the other two people in the room slept on.

Finn hummed softly, “I know what you mean, this is getting old.”

Poe sighed, his breath cooling the back of Finn’s neck in a way that made the hair there stand on end. Thankfully, there would be no way for Poe to see it in the dark. “We should wake up the others, we need to get to work on our plan.”

“Can’t we sleep for five more minutes?”

A gentle laugh sounded from behind him, “In this weather? Impossible.” Poe shifted his arm so that it was now resting on Finn’s forearm, “I just want to tell them because the sooner they know, the sooner it’s done, and the sooner we can get out of here.”

Finn nodded, “That’s fair,” he replied, then he looked across the room as another bolt of lightning illuminated Kylo and Rey’s sleeping forms.

They were still resting peacefully in the position Poe had caught them in the previous night, though Rey’s hand was now buried tightly in the folds of the sheets over Kylo’s back, and his foot was sticking out from underneath his blanket. Both of them were tight within the throes of sleep, even as the inevitable boom of thunder followed. Somehow, they’d been able to sleep through the storm of their latest night in the prison.

Lucky bastards.

Finn shifted so that he was facing Poe, hyper aware of how close their faces were, “I’m guessing you want me to do it?”

Poe shrugged, “Better you than me,” he said, then when Finn looked offended, he grinned, “I’m joking, move over.”

Before Finn could move, however, the bell announcing breakfast rang loud and clear through the prison, and the lights went up. At long last, Kylo and Rey jolted awake in their bed, and he heard their respective groans as they slowly untangled from one another, the former of the two attempting to pull the sheets over his head.

He heard Rey’s giggle in response before her head appeared from beneath the sheets, and she tugged gently at the edges while Kylo kept the sheet firmly planted beneath his head. For once, Finn found himself relating all too much to the first order’s Supreme Leader. He’d wanted to do much the same not five minutes prior.

After a few seconds, they heard the sounds of the guards stomping down the hallways with breakfast in tow, and finally Kylo lowered the sheets, and sighed deeply as he stared up at the ceiling.

“Morning,” Finn heard Poe say from behind him.

Kylo grunted a response while Rey reiterated Poe’s greeting in a voice that seemed to be just above a whisper over the loud booming of the storm.

The guards’ footsteps drew closer, and with a few grunts and groans, the four stood by the sides of their beds, staring anxiously ahead as they waited for the guards to come into their cell. Moments later, they appeared, blasters at the ready as usual, and their “meal” was delivered.

Once again, they ate in large part in silence, Finn waiting until he was absolutely certain the guards were gone before he glanced at Poe, who gave him a nod before he started to speak, “Now that the guards are gone, we have something we need to tell you,” Finn said.

Poe cleared his throat, “Last night, Finn and I were talking, and we realized one, crucial thing.”

“What’s that?” Kylo asked, looking genuinely curious, none of the malintent that had been between him and Poe evident in his eyes.

“The guards of the prison can get everywhere,” Finn explained, picking up his piece of bread, and taking a bite out of it, “And they’re always wearing masks.”

“So there’s no way to tell who’s really under there,” Rey finished for him, picking up on his idea quickly.

“Exactly.”

Kylo drummed his fingers on the floor, his eyes looking but not really seeing as he appeared lost in thought, “But how would we get their uniforms? They’re always coming in with blasters. We’d be dead before we tried anything.”

Poe smirked, “I thought about that, and it’s simple. Whenever we ask to them to go to the bathroom, they only send in two guards. So say we ask to go, and they walk on in. One maybe two of us stand right behind the door when they open it, we get the drop on them, render them unconscious, then tuck them into bed like they’re us.”

“Then two of us take their clothes and handcuff the other two, but loosely, very loosely,” Finn continued, “Loose enough that the handcuffed people can escape easily if they need to.”

Rey and Kylo looked at each other, then at Finn and Poe with hope in their eyes, and it occurred to Finn not for the first time that their plan could actually work. They could potentially get out of there within days if they played their cards right.

“And we’ll use that cold spot as our exit?” Kylo suggested.

Finn and Poe nodded at the same time, “Yeah, we could, that’s our best bet. Either way, once we have their blasters it’ll be more of a fair fight,” Poe replied, “I think if we just work this through a couple more days, get to really know this place a little better, this could work, we could be out of here in no time, and back to normal.”

Rey’s sideways glance at Kylo as Poe said this wasn’t missed by Finn, nor was the hopeful almost longing meaning hidden beneath it. Sparing her embarrassment, he said nothing, and simply continued eating his breakfast—or more accurately, choking it down.

“It sounds like a solid plan,” Rey said, smiling brightly at the other two resistance fighters, “Hope it works.”

“It’s a very good plan,” Kylo added, “I think it will work.”

Finn felt himself beaming at the two of them, the validation that the plan was solid felt like liquid hope was coursing through his veins instead of his own blood. It felt like they’d finally have a chance at getting the hell out of there, getting back to the resistance and reassuring them they weren’t dead.

They spent the next three days working tirelessly to perfect the plan. On the first day the weather was so terrible they weren’t allowed to have their one hour outdoors, but they made sure to keep themselves out of their cell at sporadic intervals throughout the day nonetheless.

Occasionally, Rey would speak to their neighbor to get more information off of him, discovering that the cold spot they’d all been feeling was indeed an exit, but what it led to he had no clue. Their neighbor also informed them that some guards had communicators hidden within their belts, but those were only the ones higher up in the ranks. There was no way to distinguish the higher ups from the men who had been leading them around the whole time either, so there was another risk posed to their plan.

When their neighbor caught on that they were trying to escape—and not by them telling him either, he simply figured it out on his own—he begged them not to. “I’ve been here two months, and I still don’t know enough to want to try escaping. Believe me, I’d have been long gone by now if I thought I had a chance.”

But they pressed on anyway.

On the second day, Finn was fairly confident he knew his way around the prison—at least, what they’d seen of it. When he asked the others how they felt, each of them gave their agreement that they were ready, they just needed to decide who was doing what.

After dinner they agreed that Kylo and Finn would take on the guard roles, and they’d lead Rey and Poe as their “prisoners.” It would also be Finn and Kylo who waited for the guards behind the doors, and would have the element of surprise. Once the plan was settled, they all looked about the room nervously, each of them shaking slightly, and this time it wasn’t just from the cold.

On the third day, they quietly practiced fighting in their cell. All four were experienced fighters, but after six days trapped in the prison, they needed to refresh their memories. Kylo automatically took the helm with the teaching, and Finn wasn’t about to stop him. If the man had beaten him in a fight once, he was about to sit up and learn.

They trained as silently as they could, using the day’s loud thunderstorm above to hide their movements in the limited space of the cell. They only stopped when the guards marched past them in the hallways, and they took breaks during mealtimes.

Finn was certainly biased, but he’d have to say he was most improved by the end of the day, his skill level still nowhere near Rey or Kylo’s, but still something to be proud of.

Once they finished, they agreed to strike the next morning after breakfast and the outdoor hour. They’d already been missing for six days, a week was far too much, and no one knew what the hell had happened with the war in their absence. For all they knew, it had been fought and won, most likely by the first order now that Finn, Poe, and Rey were gone. It could’ve been over from day one and they would have no way of knowing.

By the time they went to bed for the night, they were exhausted. They went to sleep mere minutes after dinner to get as much rest as they could. Once this plan was underway, there was no telling when any of them would be able to rest again.

That night, though the chill in the air was mild, Finn and Poe held onto each other tightly, each fearing what would happen the next day. There was an unspoken fear of what would happen if they got caught. Finn knew that if they stepped out of line they’d be tortured for their knowledge. If this plan went south, they were in for absolute hell or maybe even death at the hands of their unpredictable captors.

Finn sighed as he pushed the thought from his brain, “You know, after today I’m the second worst fighter in the resistance.”

Poe raised an eyebrow, “Who’s the worst, then?”

“You,” Finn teased, then he was met with a playful shove to his shoulder, and he laughed, “You’re better with ships, hand to hand combat isn’t for everybody.”

“That includes you.”

They both laughed softly, listening to the sound of the rain falling more gently outside than it had in previous nights. The sound was almost soothing, or maybe Finn had just gotten used to it after six days of nonstop rain and snow.

“I feel like we haven’t spent enough time on this,” Finn said, “What if we’re not ready?”

Poe sighed, “I think we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.”

Finn shifted closer to him, looking up at Poe with hopeful eyes, “Do you think we’ll make it?” He asked, waiting anxiously for his response.

Poe scoffed lightheartedly, “Snowball’s chance.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Poe.”

His commander laughed softly, “This could be our last night alive, Finn, I’m just trying to have a sense of humor.”

“Our last night?” Finn asked, raising an eyebrow, “That bad, huh?”

It became apparent to him that he and Poe were perhaps a little too close just then, their faces no more than five or six inches apart. A realization dawned on Finn that they’d been steadily drifting toward this point throughout their conversation, the sounds of the fading storm outside and Kylo and Rey’s whispers fading into nothing as if the only people in this room were the two of them.

Poe, bless him, tried to maintain some semblance of conversation for a moment, “We… we don’t know anything about this place, this could go south in so many ways—”

Finn placed a hand on his cheek, a mistake if he wanted to avoid the inevitable, “Stop talking like that. We’re not gonna die.”

It looked like Poe wanted to protest, but before he could, his eyes landed on Finn’s lips, and that sight alone sent his heart racing. With his hand still on Poe’s cheek, Finn began to lean in, but he did so agonizingly slowly, given that the distance between them was already so short.

Poe looked at him with a nervous anticipation, his adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed, his lips opening slightly, and Finn closed his eyes just before their lips touched—

“Wait,” Poe said, putting a hand against Finn’s chest, and pushing against him slightly, “We can’t. Not here.” When Finn looked at him dejected and confused, he sighed, “I want to do this with you as a free man, I don’t want our first kiss to be behind bars.”

Finn gave him a nod, “That’s alright with me.”

“But I promise you, the minute we get out of here, I’m kissing you until you can’t breathe.”

Finn chuckled lightly, “I’m holding you to that.”

“I know you will,” Poe replied, pressing a kiss to his cheek instead, then he sighed, “We’d better get to sleep.”

“Night, Poe.”

Poe smiled, “Night, Finn.”

Meanwhile in Rey and Kylo’s bed, the last Jedi was staring up at the ceiling, shifting restlessly as she tried to sleep. For some reason, no matter what she did, it didn’t work. She felt more wide awake than she’d ever been, and she’d never needed sleep more than she would need it that night. Pulling an all nighter wasn’t exactly an option, she had to do something to try to get some sleep.

It occurred to her then that the best nights of sleep she’d gotten since being in the prison—hell, some of the best nights of sleep she’d gotten period—had been when she’d fallen asleep in Ben’s arms. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, being near him felt an odd sort of wonderful. She should’ve hated it. She should’ve looked at him as her enemy, but she’d rationalized this with herself ages ago. She couldn’t look at him like that when they were bonded as they were.

She glanced over at him to find that he too was staring up at the ceiling, his hands folded over his stomach as he stared blankly, lost entirely to his thoughts. She knew the feeling. She’d been doing the same thing in the hour since they’d gone to bed.

After a moment, she worked up the courage to say something to him, “Ben?” she asked softly, feeling her heart beating out of control within her chest. If he noticed, he didn’t comment on it, and once again she was grateful to him.

“Yeah?”

She swallowed, “Um, this may be a bit awkward, but…”

“What?”

“Can we…” she paused, feeling like a foolish child as she searched for the right way to ask him this, “Can you… Can we just… hold each other again?”

His brows furrowed curiously as he looked down at her, but his emotions through the force betrayed an entirely different set of emotions, excitement and longing. He was going to say yes, but first he had to ask her something else out of courtesy, “Are you sure? It’s not that cold tonight, Rey.”

She nodded, “I know, it’s just… What we’re about to do… it’s dangerous, Ben, and I know we’ve gone up against the Praetorian guards, I know you killed Snoke, and we’ve faced worse, but we don’t have the force this time.” She paused, “Finn and Poe’s plan is fantastic and all, but…”

Ben looked at her sympathetically, and she could sense he felt much the same. As good as the plan was, there was too much that could go wrong, and there was a good chance that they’d lose their lives and they’d never get back to where they belonged. No one would ever find out what happened to them. Three legends of the resistance and the supreme leader of the first order would’ve just disappeared into thin air, never to be seen or heard from again.

And fighting without the force would be a first for either of them. Any time they’d gone into battle before this had been with both the force and their lightsabers by their side, now they had nothing. They had nothing but their fists and their rage. She could only hope that would be enough.

“We could die,” Ben finished, “This may be our last night alive.”

Rey held out a hand, feeling much like she had beside the fire the first time she’d touched him, and let out a shuddering breath when he took it, lacing his fingers through hers. His thumb ran over the back of hers before he let go, and opened an arm to her.

She didn’t hesitate to shuffle toward him until she was able to rest her head on his chest, and wrap an arm around his waist as he gently laid one down around her back, resting his hand on her waist. They sat there for a moment after, just breathing as they adjusted to the new, intimate position. Ben’s heart beat faster than she suspected it should within his chest, and hers did much the same as realized, unspoken feelings floated in the air between them.

“What do you talk about on your last night alive?” Ben asked quietly, “If this is our last night, I mean. What do we say?”

Swallowing down the nervous pit in her stomach, Rey shook her head, “I don’t know,” she replied, listening to the rain falling outside for a moment, then she took in a deep breath, “After we left Crait I heard a group talking on the Falcon, they were saying that when they thought they were going to die, they… reminisced on their lives, what they did right, what they did wrong, and everything in between… Seems like a good place to start.”

She looked up to find Ben’s eyes on hers, and he was almost smiling, “What do you think you did wrong, scavenger?”

An anxious laugh escaped her, “Why do I get to go first?”

“You brought it up. So tell me, what did you do wrong? What are your regrets?”

It came to her almost instantly, and she knew he could tell when it hit her, but she waited several moments before she answered him. She simply lay there listening to the sound of his heart beating in his chest, its pace still too quick but slowed somewhat since she’d moved toward him. “Waiting for my parents to show up for all those years, wasting my time on Jakku.”

“There was no way you could’ve known,” Ben said, his hand moving up so his fingers could trace shapes into her arm.

Rey scoffed, “I was naive, I was so naive.” She looked down again, clinging ever so slightly tighter to him as she spoke, then after a moment, she cleared her throat, “What about you? What’s your biggest regret?”

Ben froze beneath her, his breath wavering as she felt whatever it was cross in front of his mind, at the forefront of his thoughts. The rain pounded against the prison roof as a wide range of emotions flurried across his conflicted soul. To this day it was tearing him apart.

Without Ben having to say a damn word, Rey knew precisely what his biggest regret was, and before he could say it, she silenced him with a classic, “I know.”

For the first time in minutes, Ben Solo breathed easily, and his body relaxed as she relieved him of having to say it out loud. He sighed into her hair, “I wish I could take it back, but it’s too late.”

“It’s not,” she promised him, sending a wave of calm over the bond, “It’s not too late for you.”

Ben said nothing, he simply lay there staring at the ceiling and continuing to trace shapes in her arm, alternating between squares and circles and occasionally a diamond. The motion almost lulled her to sleep combined with the falling of the rain outside, a sound she’d become accustomed to over their six days in the prison.

She found herself almost enjoying it, just lying there with him. Thinking of everything and nothing all in one, and feeling the warmth of him beside her, beneath her head where she used him as her pillow. She closed her eyes and wondered how so much had changed in just under a week. At the beginning of the week, she couldn’t stand to be near him, she hadn’t spoken to him much if at all in three months. But there she was using him as her pillow, talking to him like he was an old friend, like she cared for him.

If she was being perfectly honest with herself, she definitely cared for him. She didn’t know in what way, only that she did. And if she were to continue in her honesty, she would admit that she didn’t mind one bit. She was glad that they’d gotten close again, at least for the sake of their bond. It had been hard when they weren’t speaking, and yes, she was mad at him, but something in her always ached for her to talk to him, to say something even if it was out of malice.

Listening to the sound of his heart beating beneath her ear, she was calmed almost to the point of sleep, and she could feel him beginning to fall into sleep’s clutches as well until a question popped into her head. “Ben, what did we do right?”

“We?” his voice was barely a whisper, she almost didn’t hear it, but it managed to find its way to her ears.

She laughed, the softest ghost of a laugh she could manage, “You know what I mean. What do you think you did right?”

Ben paused for a moment, “I honestly don’t know.”

“Last night alive, there’s got to be something.”

It took him a moment, but eventually, he managed, “When I sat down with you and we talked about what happened in the cave? I did that right.”

She hummed in agreement, “I never thanked you,” she said, “For being there when I needed someone. I meant to, but then Luke…”

They were quiet for a minute, their memories taking them back to the night she’d realized Kylo Ren still had a piece of Ben Solo within him, fighting for life. The night they’d touched hands in front of a fire and been given hope that they’d stand by one another’s side.

Rey wouldn’t admit ever that she still thought of that touch, the smallest brush of skin, just fingertips, and it would send her reeling. Somehow, she sensed Ben was thinking the same thing as those unspoken feelings continued to dance about in the air.

Ben’s hand reached up, and brushed against the fingertips of the hand she’d slung over his waist, recreating the memory. This time, she grasped his hand in hers, threading her fingers through it as she held him tightly.

“Rey?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not the worst person I could potentially die with.”

Her lips spread into a smile, “Neither are you,” she replied, then she pulled herself a little bit closer to him, and closed her eyes, finally feeling like just maybe, she’d be able to sleep.

The last thing Rey heard before sleep took her in its clutches was Ben’s gently whispered, “Good night.” Then she was out like a light.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright time to board the angst train to shitville.


	7. First Try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She looked away from him then, and stared across the room at Finn and Poe as thunder boomed around them, “At least they got to sleep in,” she muttered, “We got to wake up early.”
> 
> Ben shrugged, the motion shifting Rey’s head on his chest, and she looked back at him as he spoke, “I don’t know, it’s not that bad. Gives us a minute to talk.”
> 
> “About what?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay maybe I lied and there’s a tiny bit more fluff before the angst but the train is nearly in the station. Let’s do this.

 

Once again, Rey woke up in Kylo’s arms to the sound of thunder booming outside. She groaned into his chest, and slowly looked up to see if he was awake.

She found out very quickly that he was indeed already awake, a bolt of lightning illuminating his face as he looked down at her. She wondered how long he’d already been awake for when she woke up, but she said nothing to him as she remembered what they would be doing that day.

Her breath shook, but so did his as they simply sat there staring at each other for a few minutes, saying everything they were feeling through their bond. Mostly, it was nerves. Both of them were overwhelmingly nervous. Rey could feel the pit that had formed in his stomach as strongly as she could feel the one in hers.

Heart racing, she brought a hand up to caress his cheek, feeling her chest clench slightly when he leaned into her touch, “Are you ready?” She asked quietly.

He shook his head, “I don’t think I’ll ever be,” he replied, placing his left hand gently on her forearm.

“How long have you been awake?”

“Two minutes, maybe less.”

Rey listened to his heart beating in his chest, when it didn’t beat faster, she knew he was telling the truth. She pulled herself tighter against him, and let her hand fall down to his chest, which somehow felt more intimate, “I wonder how much time we have left.”

Ben’s breath hitched when her hand traced his scar briefly on its way down, though she pretended not to notice as usual. She had no idea what to do about the electricity floating in the air over their bond that had absolutely nothing to do with the thunderstorm over their heads. She stared at the scar for a moment, “That’s healing nicely.”

Another bolt of lightning lit up the room so she could see his smirk more clearly, “You should’ve seen how it looked at first. All red and bloody…”

She shook her head, “I saw, but I didn’t realize until I saw you without your shirt that time just how good I’d gotten you,” she admitted, her fingers finding the edge of his shirt, and pulling it aside slightly to reveal the bottom of the scar, “All the way to your chest. Quite an achievement for a first timer.”

His breath stopped again, “Quite,” he replied, his voice damn near a squeak.

She knew her amusement was leaking into their bond, but she didn’t care. Something about having this effect on him was immensely satisfying, and it provided an excellent distraction from the prospect of her potential death later in the day.

Ben quickly changed the subject back to their escape plan, and their brief, almost flirtatious spell was broken. “We need to get as far away from this base as we can once we’re out of here, if we make any stops they could catch us all over again.”

She nodded, barely managing to conceal her disappointment at the subject change from him, if she managed it at all. “You’re right, but it’s no use talking about it. There’s nothing we can do unless you’ve suddenly got a better plan.”

“I don’t.”

She looked away from him then, and stared across the room at Finn and Poe as thunder boomed around them, “At least they got to sleep in,” she muttered, “We got to wake up early.”

Ben shrugged, the motion shifting Rey’s head on his chest, and she looked back at him as he spoke, “I don’t know, it’s not that bad. Gives us a minute to talk.”

“About what?”

He froze again, though she knew exactly what he was thinking as his feelings came to her clear as day through the bond. He was thinking about that unspoken thing that had slowly grown between them, cementing itself in their minds over the course of the last six days that they dared not speak of. If they spoke of it, it suddenly became too real, and Rey couldn’t speak for Ben, but she was fairly certain neither of them was ready for that conversation yet. And they certainly didn’t want to have it here in this shithole of a prison.

“Anything,” Ben answered her after a long minute, “Whatever you’re supposed to talk about on your last morning alive.”

Rey opened her mouth to answer him, but was interrupted by the sound of the prison’s alarm announcing breakfast, and she shook her head. “I guess we’ll have to talk about it later,” she said, as if there was a later. As if he wouldn’t go right back to the first order once this was over and remind her, painfully, that he was still Kylo Ren, not Ben Solo.

Yet a part of her still held out hope that he wouldn’t go back to the first order when this was over. That when they left, he’d return to the resistance with her and they’d finally put an end to the whole war. She knew they could do it. Ben Solo had been called their last hope, after all, but that wouldn’t be a possibility until he came with them.

The prospect of it was too great, and she knew then that she would ask him to join her as he’d once asked her to join him once they were out of there. The moment they were free, she’d ask him, and if he said yes, she suspected it would be the best moment of her life. If he said no…

She wasn’t quite ready to entertain that notion yet.

The bell’s ringing came to a stop, and from the other side of the room, Finn and Poe were groaning awake.

Minutes later, they received their breakfast, eating for a large part in silence, until they heard a sudden commotion outside their door. The guards were stomping down the hallway toward them, and for a moment, all four froze, fearing that they’d somehow been caught, that they’d been overheard and they would be killed before they could even begin their plan.

This proved not to be the case when the guards instead marched to the other side of the hallway, to their neighbors cell… the cell of the very neighbor who’d helped them over the past six days to learn about the prison. Rey’s blood ran cold as she heard them force the door open, and men screamed loudly as blaster fire rang out. The horrid sound of bodies crumpling to the floor hit her ears a moment later, and she looked to the others with fear in her eyes.

Yet she couldn’t feel their souls crying out in the force as they were extinguished, and perhaps that was because the force had been diminished in her minds eye, but she couldn’t help but hope that the guards weapons had been set to stun. Her theory seemed to be proven right when the guards began to lift the bodies—at least, that’s what she assumed to be happening, if the grunts were anything to go by—and take them back down the hall, a gruff voice calling out for an interrogation.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized they weren’t dead, merely passed out, and she looked on at the others, “We need to be extremely careful today.”

Finn and Poe nodded in front of her as they finished their food. Ben on the other hand sent waves of assurance through their bond, and his fingers shifted towards hers, though he didn’t hold her hand in front of her friends. She blushed at the thought of him holding her hand, and looked away, stealing a glance at the window where the morning’s pouring rain had once again turned to snow.

The sight of the snow sent a smile to her face. If she were to die that day, at least she got to see snowfall one last time.

They waited until the guards took their plates again before they spoke of the plan any further. Finn and Poe, being the most knowledgeable of it, guided them through one last recall of their escape plan, making sure everyone knew what details to follow, and how they’d handle themselves if they were caught.

The entire hour before their outdoor time was spent like this, rehearsing the plan, going over some last minute fighting tactics, and occasionally sitting in silence to contemplate all the things that could go wrong.

Once they were finally allowed outside, Rey stood staring up at the snow as it fell gently down around them, hoping that it wouldn’t be the last time she’d see it, that she’d get the chance one day to stand in the snow again as it gathered in her hair. At one point, she held out her tongue, and caught one of the many snowflakes, delight filling her as she closed her mouth, tasting the cool water as it melted.

She looked up to find Ben laughing at her, and she shook her head at him as she smiled, feeling him become flustered through the bond. She walked over to him, his eyes following her as she approached, “I can’t wait to see this when I’m free,” she said, holding out a palm to collect snowflakes.

Ben hummed his assent, but he said nothing as he stared up at the snow. Rey watched as it gathered in his dark hair, and cautiously, she raised her cuffed hands, and brushed a large chunk of it from his head, the snow falling into a fine, white mist as it cascaded over his shoulders. She could feel his eyes on her the entire time until she stepped back, “You had some…” she gestured to her own hair, “In your hair. A lot of it.”

Wow, Rey, how eloquent, she thought to herself.

Mercifully, Ben laughed, and stepped forward, once again diminishing the distance between them so that she had to look up to see his face. She felt her heart beating in his chest as she anticipated what he was going to do, but he just repeated her earlier action, brushing some snow out of her hair. But unlike when she stepped back, Ben simply lowered his arm, his eyes locked firmly on hers as his lips parted to say something he would never say.

Before Ben could say anything to her, they were interrupted by the sound of Finn and Poe’s laughter behind them. Rey turned around to find her friends engaged in a light hearted snowball fight, picking up the snow, and throwing at each other when they were sure the guards weren’t looking.

She found herself laughing along with them until suddenly she felt snow hit the back of her head, and she turned to find a smirking Ben staring at her, brushing his hands off on his blanket.

“I’d get you back for that, but I’ve never made a snowball,” She grumbled.

Ben grinned, then he sighed, “Sounds like you need a teacher.”

Rey rolled her eyes at him, then she glanced back at Finn and Poe, who were truly making the most of their unfortunate situation, and she sighed, “But we shouldn’t do that. We need to keep warm and dry, and draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. Any other day I would but…”

Ben nodded, “I know,” he replied, then before he could say anything else, the guards began the procedure of ushering them back into the prison.

Finn—who had been about to throw a snowball—froze, and dropped the snow in his hands, exchanging a worried glance with Poe before they began to walk back inside. Ben and Rey did much the same, their joy from just a moment prior all but forgotten as they joined the pack of prisoners reentering the prison.

The walk back to the cell was completely quiet. They barely even breathed. Rey could practically feel her heart beating out of her chest, and this time it wasn’t because she’d become flustered by something Ben had done. It was now out of a fearful anticipation of what they were about to do. She could feel Ben’s own fear through the bond, his mind brushing against hers as if searching for comfort, which she willingly gave.

Once they were left alone in the cell, the four began anxiously counting down the minutes until they deemed it safe to call for the guard, and begin their plan. Another hour passed before they looked amongst themselves, exchanging a group nod before Rey walked up to the cell door, and pressed her face against the bars, “Guard! I need to use the toilet!” She cried, then she stepped back, and Finn and Ben got into position beside the door.

Not even a minute later she heard the sound of the two guards’ footsteps marching down the hallway toward her. She nodded to the others, and stepped back from the door to stand beside Poe, who held out a hand that she graciously accepted as they stared down the door.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, and it felt for a moment like she may burst with anticipation before the guards finally unlocked the door, walked into the cell, and all hell broke loose.

Ben and Finn were on them in seconds, the latter of the two slamming the door shut behind them so they wouldn’t have a chance to escape. Before they could even reach for their blasters, Ben hit one of them over the head so hard he instantly fell to the ground unconscious, and Finn wasn’t far behind in his task.

Once the two guards were unconscious, Ben and Finn exchanged a disbelieving look, and to Rey and Poe’s surprise, they smiled at each other before they began to strip the guards of their clothing, making note that neither one of the guards had communicator devices. According to their neighbor, that apparently meant they weren’t high up in the ranks.

“That’s a good thing,” Ben explained, undoing the guard’s mask, then looking somewhat surprised to realize they were in fact human, “It means we’ll be able to get around more easily.”

The others simply nodded as he and Finn continued to strip the guards, then instructed Rey and Poe to turn around as they changed.

“But why? I don’t want to miss the show,” Poe joked, his tone reminding Rey of his comments toward Kylo their first day there, and sending her into a small fit of giggles as she turned around. She then tugged on Poe’s arm to get him to turn around as well, though he grumbled teasingly under his breath about Rey being a prude the whole way.

A minute later, Finn and Ben told them they could turn around, and Rey felt a bit of a shock go through her when she saw them in the guards’ clothes. She quickly moved past it as she offered them her wrists, “Cuff us,” she said, gesturing to Poe, who held out his own wrists.

Ben and Finn looked at each other hesitantly, then they pulled the cuffs out from their belts, and got to work. Ben cuffed Rey while Finn cuffed Poe, who was quick to make a, “It’s always the quiet ones,” comment that had them all struggling not to laugh.

Once they were both cuffed—albeit loosely—they gave each other once overs, double checked that everyone was okay with what they were about to do, then Ben and Finn tucked the guards into their beds, and led Rey and Poe out of the cell with their blasters pointed at their backs.

The plan was underway. There was no turning back now.

They made their way down the hallway, Rey could hear Ben reciting the path to the cold spot under his breath, only stopping when they passed another group of guards, who gave Ben and Finn nods as they walked. She sent waves of calm over their bond, hoping she could ease his nerves as much as her own as they got closer and closer to their endgame.

Eventually, they turned into the hallway that was colder than the others, and they followed it down to where it ended in a door, which was slightly ajar at what Rey now knew to be the far side of the prison. The air here was particularly cold as she’d suspected it would always be, but something about the door made her think it definitely didn’t lead to the outside. Not immediately, at least.

The four exchanged another cautious glance, then Ben reached for the door, and opened it, revealing a hangar of sorts full of a multitude of different spacecraft. Rey’s jaw dropped open as they stepped inside, the door closing behind them as she stared up at the different types of ships surrounding them.

A row of X-wings sat rusting slowly at the front, the occasional TIE fighter mixed in. The four stared at the ships in a mixture of confusion and awe. It was truly a fair mix of Reistance and First Order craft. Somewhere in this warehouse-like room, she suspected the ships they’d all taken to get there were hidden in the crowd.

“I guess we’ve found where they keep our ships,” Finn murmured.

“We need something bigger,” Poe said as they walked past the first row, “We’ll never make it out of here if we take any of these.”

“We need something that can get to light speed,” Ben finished for him.

Rey sighed, and gestured to the many ships surrounding them, “Let’s pick one, and hurry.”

They moved quickly through the rows of spacecraft, looking for something—anything—that would get them into light space and as far from this wretched prison as possible. It didn’t seem that they were having much luck on that front, and Rey was starting to feel doubtful about escaping until she felt the force humming softly around her. It was far from what it once was, from what it had been before she’d been captured, but it was more than she’d felt in six days.

“Do you feel that?” Ben asked, keeping his blaster high as they weaved in and out of the ships of the hanger.

“If by that you mean the force, yes,” she replied, feeling the force once again surging through her veins. She reached her hands out, and undid her cuffs, letting them fall limply to the ground. She then turned, and reached out for Poe’s cuffs, undoing them as well with a smirk.

Poe’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as he realized what she’d done, and he tapped Finn on the shoulder to proudly display his freed wrists. The two shared a jubilant laugh, then they walked ahead of Ben and Rey to find more spacecraft that would potentially be useful once they escaped.

That left her and Ben to walk about lazily behind them, occasionally examining a ship or two, but for the most part, they spoke about their reunion with the force.

“I guess the further away we get from the center of the prison, the more it comes back to us,” Ben observed.

Rey nodded, “Guess so.”

Ben looked at her with a gentle smile on his face, “We’re going to win,” he said, “I think we might actually get out of here.”

Rey returned his smile as she walked by his side, “Think we might, yeah.”

Beside her, Ben looked apprehensive, and worry and curiosity filled through their bond, “What are we going to do after this?”

Rey was stunned. She hadn’t expected him to want anything from her once they’d been freed from the prison. She thought he would go back to the first order, though a part of her sensed him turning away from them the more time they spent together. Especially after their conversation that morning and the near snowball fight they’d engaged in in the yard...

If she were being honest, she’d been hoping that Ben wouldn’t return to the first order, that he’d stay with them, and he’d never leave. She looked up at him then, sending feelings of warmth through the bond as she approached the subject she so desperately wanted to talk to him about, “...I don’t know. I was hoping...”

“...hoping?”

She stopped walking then in front of an old TIE fighter, “Come back with us. We could take down the first order within a week, but not without you.” She took his hand, “With you by my side... we’d be unstoppable, you’d be on the right side of history.”

“Rey…” he began, but he was interrupted by Poe’s cry of “Guys!” Ahead of them, and the conversation was dropped as they ran to catch up with their friends, and Rey felt her blood run cold as she realized that the guards had found them. They were surrounded on all sides, and what little she had started to feel of the force a minute earlier had started to fade. They were running out of time and were already out of time simultaneously, and she loathed it.

“Leaving so soon?” One of the guard’s asked, his voice strikingly familiar, and Rey realized where she knew it from. He was the one who had fired a warning shot at her on their very first day.

She felt fear in her gut as she looked up at him, but she dared not show it on her face. Instead, she reached a hand up at him, attempting to grab his blaster with the force, but failing. The damn thing didn’t leave his hands, it didn’t even tremble. She grasped at it again, but it was no use. What little she felt of the force earlier was gone.

Beside her, Ben was also putting his hand down, clearly having tried the same thing. The guards looked amongst themselves, and even through the masks she could tell they were grinning wickedly.

There was ice in her blood when she realized why. They’d just given themselves away as force users. They’d just revealed one stupid, crucial clue about themselves, and unless Ben and Finn thought quickly with those blasters, they were utterly screwed.

“Take off those masks, we know who you are,” The guard commanded them, and hesitantly, Ben and Finn reached up, and undid their masks, letting them fall to the floor as they looked up at the guard, their blasters still pointed at the guards’ face level.

“Your plan was brilliant,” The guard began, circling them as he spoke, keeping his own blaster at the ready, “Really, it was, and it would’ve worked… if you hadn’t trusted the wrong man.”

With that, the guards broke their formation as four more of them stepped through dragging a man beside them. The man was beaten bloody and he was chained up in every place a man could be chained up, but when she met his eyes, Rey recognized him. He was their neighbor.

“You,” she breathed, pointing her finger at him, “You told them?”

The man looked ashamed and exhausted, and while their plan had clearly been beaten out of him, she couldn’t help but feel betrayed. Through the bond, she could sense Ben feeling much the same, though his was combined with an odd feeling of sympathy that she hadn’t expected from him.

“I’m sorry, they promised me my freedom if I could tell them anything I knew,” the man said, shaking as he spat out blood from his mouth.

The guard chuckled wickedly, “Oh, but you weren’t willing to give away anything of yours, were you? No! He bargained for his freedom with your escape plan!”

Rey’s heart dropped into her stomach as she realized then that her fears of not making it through the day suddenly held merit. She felt like her skin was crawling as the guard sized up their group of four, then he looked back at the man, “It was a good bargain. I got more out of it than I expected. You’ve let me see that I have not one, but two force users in my presence.” He looked at them once again, eyes trailing over Rey in a way that made her feel pure disgust, “How rare is that? Two bloody force users...” he said, “Damn shame I don’t bargain with traitors, though.”

The man’s face paled as the guard shifted the settings on his blaster, and it occurred to Rey that up until that point, it had been set to stun.

Things suddenly moved in slow motion as the guard pointed his blaster at the man, who begged for his life with words that barely registered in Rey’s ears over her own voice shouting at him not to do it. But he didn’t listen. He simply stepped forward as he fired three shots into his head, and the man fell limply to the ground, blood pooling around him as the seconds went by.

Rey stepped back as the guard instructed the four who had brought him in to take away the body, then everything erupted into chaos.

She wasn’t sure who fired first, but Ben or Finn’s blaster went off, narrowly missing one of the guards before each one of them, blasters set to stun, fired back regardless of whether the four of them were armed.

Ben and Finn were quick to take defensive positions, placing themselves between the unarmed Rey and Poe and the guards. The unarmed two did the best they could to warn their friends when a guard was coming forward or had their blaster aimed at them, but there was only so much they could do when they were outnumbered as they were.

There were at least a dozen guards surrounding them and they’d only managed to get a hit on one, but it was impossible to tell who’s hit it was in all the chaos. They were going to lose this battle, Rey knew, but they weren’t going to go down without giving them one hell of a fight.

“Ben, on your right!” She shouted, ducking as he exchanged fire with another guard, managing to at least shoot his blaster out of his hand in a shower of sparks.

Briefly, Ben looked back at her, and she felt his gratitude wash over her, regret underlying the look in his eyes. If this were any other moment, she’d question that regret, wonder why it was there, but she didn’t have the time. That was the precise moment they started to truly lose their battle.

Poe went down first. She cried out his name as she bent down on the ground over his unconscious form, checking him to make sure he was indeed unconscious as Ben and Finn exchanged fire with the guards. By mercy of the force, he was still alive. They were indeed simply being stunned.

She turned around to try and find a weapon and join the fight, but just as she stood up, a fiery bolt of pure heat struck her abdomen, and her vision went black. The last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was a cry of “Rey!” Though she couldn’t quite place who said it, she was already out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry.


	8. Burning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’m so sorry,” he said softly. 
> 
> She looked confused, “What for?” 
> 
> He gestured to the door of their cell, “For this,” he replied. 
> 
> “It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known they were coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight so the angst is here (assuming this chapter posts correctly this time and actually shows up in the tags). Also I've got to go on a trip this weekend for my geology class so there's no telling if I'll be able to update this much over the next few days, but you can fucking bet I'll be writing it. It will be written. I've already got scenes from chapters ten, twelve, and fourteen written that I'm really excited about, and I might eventually bump up the rating but I'm not sure, it depends. And on another note, remind me to tell y'all something when we get to chapter fourteen, it's very relevant, and you'll laugh. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

When Kylo woke up, he at first didn’t remember where he was or what had happened. All he knew was that he could barely open his eyes, the light blinding him each time he tried. He flinched, and turned his head into something soft and warm to get away from it.

A gentle voice entered his ears, though he couldn’t tell what it was saying. He felt a hand threading through his hair, gently stroking it as waves of peace washed over his bond with Rey, and he realized the voice belonged to her, and his head was resting in her lap.

He still couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes, but he croaked out her name, his voice fuzzy around the edges. Vaguely he registered another voice, this one sounding pained, wounded, like he was hurt.

It was then that he remembered where he was and what had happened. At long last, his eyes opened, and he looked up to find Rey staring down at him, her brows furrowed in concern. “Ben?” She asked softly, her hand continuing to stroke his hair, though more slowly now.

He groaned, and blinked until she came into focus, “What's happening?”

She shook her head as she looked down at him, “They took Finn,” she replied, tears brimming in her eyes as her voice trembled, “They said they were taking him in for questioning, but we all know what that really means.”

“They’re torturing him,” Kylo said, and she gave him a nod, swallowing back what he knew to be a sob from the mixture of pure fear and sorrow rushing through the bond.

“It’s over,” Poe said from the other side of the room, then he chuckled half heartedly, “We were all so worried about dying today, and here we are. If any of us says the wrong thing, it’s over.”

“We just have to make sure we say nothing,” Kylo replied, shifting his head to look at the commander, noticing for the first time that his eyes were red. At some point before he’d woken up, he’d been crying. “If we don’t give them anything, they’ll keep us alive, and the longer we live, the more time we have to come up with an escape plan.”

“Because our last one worked out so brilliantly,” Poe muttered as Rey’s hand ceased its work on his hair, “We’re sitting here waiting for them to come back and torture the next person. No telling who it’ll be.”

Rey shook her head, “No, he’s right, we need to try again, and it’ll take a lot of time, and a lot of patience, but we’re going to be free.”

Kylo glanced up at her, and she gave him the smallest hint of a smile as the corners of her mouth twitched upward. As she had done that morning, he put a hand on her cheek, and he sighed, “I’m so sorry,” he said softly.

She looked confused, “What for?”

He gestured to the door of their cell, “For this,” he replied.

“It’s not your fault, you couldn’t have known they were coming.”

Once again, he shook his head, then he sat up, and looked at her as they sat side by side, barely taking notice of their touching knees, “That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry that we’re here in the first place, _that_ is my fault.”

She continued to look perplexed, “Ben this isn’t your fault, you can’t blame yourself for it, it’s just as much my fault as it is yours.”

“She’s right,” Poe said, sniffling as he wiped his nose with his sleeve, “As much as I would’ve loved to blame you for this at first, it’s not your fault. We came to that shady dump of a planet. That was our choice.”

Kylo sighed, “No, if I’d just come with Rey three months ago... none of this would be happening.”

He could sense her heart beating faster in his chest, her eyes full of hope as she looked up at him, “You mean...?”

He knew then that the mask of Kylo Ren he’d worn for six years had faded out, his choice was made. He wasn’t fully in the light, and maybe he’d never be, but in just one week of being with Rey, and even Finn and Poe, something had changed within him. Now he had no desire to return to the first order once this was over, given that his involvement with them had led him here in the first place.

If he’d just left them sooner, if he’d just gone with Rey and saved the resistance fleet on Crait three months prior, none of this would be happening. He wouldn’t have had to signal the resistance anonymously once he’d initially thought he changed his mind, and he wouldn’t have gotten them all trapped here with him.

His mind made up, he took Rey’s hand in his, and nodded, “When we get out of here, I’m coming with you. I’ll fight with the resistance, I need to make this right.”

Rey was positively beaming at him now, her smile lighting up the room better than any sun the planet had yet to conjure up. She laced her fingers through his, “Finally,” she breathed.

Ben returned her smile, then he sighed, knowing it was time for him to properly explain why it truly was his fault they were there. “Rey, there’s something I need to tell you,” he began.

“What?”

Before he could even open his mouth, he was interrupted by the sound of their cell door being thrown open, and the guards marched inside, bringing a slightly bloodied Finn in tow.

Ben and Rey dropped each other’s hands, then watched as the four guards marched their way into the cell until they were fully inside. Finn groaned as they threw him to the ground, and the guard who had been giving them so much grief the entire time called out, “Which one of you is next?”

Rey, Ben, and Poe looked at each other nervously, and Ben took in a deep breath, ready to volunteer himself when he was interrupted by the guard. “Let’s take her next,” he ordered.

He felt Rey’s heart drop in her chest, and as the guards moved to take her, she said his name quietly and fearfully, “Ben...”

Ben couldn’t find the words to say as the guards grabbed Rey harshly, slapping cuffs on her as they moved. It was only when she looked back at him with sadness in her eyes that he finally snapped, and stood up off the bed, “Don’t take her!” he cried, then he stepped forward as Rey was being led out the door, “Take me instead.”

“Ben, don’t!” she shouted as they continued leading her out in the hallway, ignoring him.

The guards ordered Ben to be quiet as they left the cell, slamming the door shut behind them with more force than they’d ever used on them before. Ben rushed up against the door, staring down the hallway after Rey as they led her out of his sight. He stayed there for a moment, even though she was long gone, it felt better to be at the door than to sit on the bed doing nothing.

He could feel her fear leaking into their bond, and he did his best to shield her from it as he walked back over to the bed, shaking involuntarily with a terror that didn’t belong to him.

“Are you okay?” Poe asked, and Ben was about to answer, but then when he looked up he realized Poe was talking to Finn, who was still lying on the floor clutching his head in pain.

Finn shook his head, “Man, I don’t know what they put in there, but it’s powerful.”

Ben’s eyebrows furrowed together, “What do you mean ‘put in there?’”

His former stormtrooper looked up at him, his eyes still wide with fear, “I don’t know… they started out with what I expected, threw a couple punches, some kicks, but then they strapped me down to this table, and they injected something and…” Finn took Poe’s hand, staring straight ahead of him but both Ben and Poe knew he wasn’t seeing the cell, he was seeing wherever he’d just been minutes prior, “... It burned like nothing I ever felt before. I couldn’t think. Not about anything but the pain. I couldn’t even think the answer to what they were trying to ask me. They asked me who I was and all I could do was scream.”

Poe and Ben’s eyes met, both men fearing the encounter they knew they’d have later, and fearing for Rey as she was being led into whatever torture chamber they’d devised.

Rey’s fear was still leaking into their bond, and suddenly, he could feel her trying to block him, trying to force him from her mind. He looked at Finn and Poe, his jaw dropping as he felt Rey desperately attempting to close him off and failing.

“Kylo? What’s going on?” Poe asked, still holding Finn’s hand, but looking ready to go to the other man if he needed to.

Ben froze in place, “It’s Rey, she’s trying to block me out,” he said, and it was only when he spoke the words out loud that he understood why.

They were connected. Whatever pain she endured, he was going to feel it. Though he would not physically bruise, he would feel every burning, biting sensation of a punch, every dull thud of a kick, and whatever the horrid drug they’d injected Finn with would do to his mind. That was why she was trying to shut him out. She didn’t want him to feel it.

“Why?” Poe asked, but Finn caught on immediately.

“She doesn’t want him to feel it,” he explained, “If she feels it, he’s going to feel it. And if the guards hear him screaming, too, they’ll know they’re connected. They’ll up their game. The torture will be even worse.”

Ben nodded, then he put his head in his hands as he tried to send his assurance to Rey that he would be fine, that whatever they threw her way, he could handle it. If he couldn’t, there would’ve been no way he would’ve survived under Snoke for as long as he did.

The pain of the first punch hit him a moment later, just beneath his fifth rib on his left side, he gasped at first, his hand rubbing gently at the sore area. Sympathy for Rey leaked through the bond, and he tried to shield his pain from her at the thought of her being tortured and instead send her emotions that appealed to the lighter side of his nature. He tapped into the light part of him that was Ben Solo, forsaking any trace of Kylo Ren in his attempt to shield her from their torture.

It didn’t quite work.

The second blow hit him across the jaw, and he jerked his head to the side as he grimaced in pain. Poe asked if he was okay, and he lied, claiming he was, but the commander certainly knew better.

“Lie down,” Poe instructed him, “It’ll hurt less.”

For once, Ben did as he was told, grunting quietly as another hit struck him in the center of his abdomen. He felt sorrow licking at the center of his thoughts, but he pushed it away. The last thing Rey needed right now was his grief on top of her suffering.

He tried to create a sense of happiness that he could send her through the bond, recalling his memories of her.

He remembered the moment they’d shared in her hut, how he’d felt when she’d trusted him with the loneliness she’d felt. She’d practically flowed in the firelight as they’d touched hands, a tear streaming down her cheek that he wanted nothing more than to wipe away.

His memory shifted to the death of the man who had tormented him his entire life, when he’d driven a saber through his body, and sliced him clean in two before letting the blade fall right into Rey’s hands, and they fought side by side and back to back. He remembered the feeling of her back against his, and her hand on his thigh as she kicked the praetorian guards away, using him as a powder keg. If only he’d followed her then. If only he’d listened to her words about saving the fleet, and followed her, maybe things would be different, but he refused to let her feel his regret.

He remembered the moment he’d woken up to find her holding him, a memory that he’d looked back on as something that brought him delight in secret over the past several days. As another blow landed on his cheek, he thought of her hand slung over his waist, her fingers gripping his shirt as her warm breath singed his neck. He thought of the warmth she’d brought him as she pressed up against him. They’d still been barely enemies then, but somehow they’d managed to wake up and hold a conversation without malice.

The moment she’d agreed to let him hold her struck him next, and he remembered the first time she’d shifted over to him in the very bed he laid down in right that moment. The feeling of her head against his chest was so fresh in his mind he could almost picture her in his arms now.

His personal favorite memory had been the previous evening, when she’d turned to him and asked if they could hold each other and her head was positioned directly above his heart. He knew she could feel it beating faster than it ought to, but she, like him, said nothing about it.

Ben thought at long last of her awestruck expression whenever she saw snow, especially when she’d seen it that morning, and reached up with cuffed hands to brush snow from his hair. He remembered throwing a snowball at her, and the gleeful shock that had filled her. The joy that had filtered through the bond just a moment later.

By the end of his flurry of memories, he was positive there wasn’t much else he could do over the bond, and he was no longer feeling the punches coming every five seconds. He realized quickly that this could also be because they had moved on to drugging her with whatever they attacked Finn with, and this was far from over.

“Finn, Poe, I need you to tell me… memories, give me good memories, think about Rey, think about your happiest memories of Rey,” he told them, feeling the pinch of a needle in his upper left arm, and knowing he didn’t have long.

Finn and Poe looked at each other briefly, then the former of the two opened his mouth to speak, but Kylo didn’t hear him. All of a sudden, there was pure fire in his veins. It felt like he was burning alive. He turned his face into the pillow, and screamed blindly into it as whatever poison they had injected into Rey coursed through him.

He felt it first in his arm, then it spread to his shoulders, his neck, his head, his chest, then all over. Soon enough, his entire body was burning, and as much as he tried, he couldn’t stop screaming. He could only hope the pillow was soundproof enough, and that the wind outside would drown out whatever noise managed to escape.

Vaguely, he registered that someone was on the floor in front of him, and a hand was on his shoulder, supporting him as he felt nothing but pure agony. “Kylo,” a voice called out, thought whether it was Finn or Poe he couldn’t tell, “Kylo.”

He didn’t bother to look at the man speaking to him, though it occurred to some small part of him that it was Poe. Under any other circumstances, he would’ve pushed him away, but he couldn’t even find the strength to look up from the pillow.

A hand was on his back, and another took his hand. He found himself clutching onto it for support as Finn and Poe recalled their memories of Rey, and through the sheer fire coursing through him, he tried to send those feelings of delight to her.

Ben’s pain slowly began to melt away the more stories Finn and Poe told, and he looked up from the pillow to find Poe kneeling before him, and it was Poe’s hand that had taken him when he was in the throes of the fiery drug they’d injected Rey with. Though Ben didn’t understand why the commander was being so kind to him, he didn’t question it, and made a mental note to thank him later. “It’s working,” he said, breathing hard, suddenly aware of a bead of sweat making its way down his brow.

Finn, who’d been sitting beside him at the bed’s edge, sighed in relief, “Well, that’s something.”

“This bond, do you guys feel… everything?” Poe asked curiously as he let go of Ben’s hand.

Ben shook his head, “No, just emotions, and… and pain. I could feel it… her agony, I can still feel it.”

It was indeed still racing through his veins, occasionally he bit his lip just to keep from crying out, and alerting the guards to the fact that he was in the same state as Rey. It had diminished some thanks to the positive, light sided emotions he’d been able to send through the bond, but it still hurt to move.

Poe looked up at Finn, then back at Ben, “When they torture you, she’s going to feel it, too.”

Ben’s heart dropped in his chest, and for a moment the burning sensation worsened again, causing him to wince before he composed himself. He recalled all of the memories again, then he sat up, and looked at his still unlikely allies. “Whenever they take me, you’ll need to tell her to do the same thing I just did. It won’t work completely, but it should do something.”

It was then that the burning began to fade entirely, and he knew they were finished with her. They would be coming for whoever was next soon, and he looked at Poe nervously. It was going to be one of them. There was no telling which would go first, but one of them was about to experience that fire.

“I won’t tell them anything,” Poe said, as if he could read what Ben was thinking, “Besides, after being tortured by you, how much worse can it get?”

Ben winced again, only this time it wasn’t from the pain, “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

Poe’s eyes widened in shock, “What?”

“I’m sorry I did that to you,” Ben repeated, looking up at him in shame. Before Poe could say anything else, he sat up, and groaned, “They’ve finished with her. They’re coming back for one of us.”

Finn and Poe stiffened, then they listened for the marching of the guards in the hallways. After an agonizingly long moment where they could hear each other’s hearts beating in their chests, they heard the sound of the guards marching down the hall toward them.

Poe held out a hand to Ben, helping him stand up before he and Finn returned to their side of the room, standing patiently at their sides of the cell as the guards through their cell door open, and shoved Rey inside. She grunted as she hit the floor, and she stayed there for a long moment as the lead guard walked further into the room, pointing his blaster between Finn and Poe.

He looked between them curiously for a moment, then he settled on Ben, whose heart skipped a beat in his chest. It became clear to him then. No matter what he did, he would be the next one to be tortured.

There was a pause, though before he was finally picked, allowing him just one moment to lock eyes with Rey as she pushed herself off of the floor. He nodded solemnly at her, then the guard pointed to him, “Let’s take him. He already volunteered.”

Ben hoped he didn’t look as resigned as he felt as he offered up his wrists, and they all but slapped the cuffs onto him. He looked down at Rey’s eyes one last time, finding them filled with tears as she looked up at him. “It’s okay,” he told her, then he was led out of the room, her sorrow following him as he was marched down the hallway.

The sound of his cell door slamming behind him registered vaguely in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t think about it as they led him down the hall to the torture chamber. He was too busy running through every single one of the happier memories he’d just gone through with Rey, including the ones he’d been told about from Finn and Poe.

It felt like the walk lasted mere seconds, though perhaps that was because he’d been deeply lost in thought, not wanting to think about what lay ahead for him. He was still exhausted from experiencing Rey’s torture. It took effort to remind himself that he’d suffered under Snoke for as long as he could remember, and at several points he’d suffered fates far worse than whatever the burning poison they would inject into him would be.

They led him into a room with dim, green lights, with nothing inside of it except for the bloodstains that were spattered on the floor, and the one, lone interrogation table complete with the straps necessary to hold one down. As soon as the door closed he felt a foot strike his back, and he lost his balance, falling to the floor gracelessly with a grunt.

Once he was down, the lead guard walked around in front of him, and knelt down, keeping his blaster pointed at Ben’s face the entire time, “Now your friends haven’t told me anything, let’s see if you make the same mistake,” he said, then he grabbed Ben by the front of his shirt, and lifted him up with a surprising amount of strength.

“I consider myself a merciful man, so I’ll give you one chance to answer my questions the easy way.”

Ben shook his head, but said nothing.

“You were found in a first order issue uniform, unlike your friends, who were all Resistance,” the guard said, pacing around Ben with his hands behind his back, “I’ve noticed, watching you over the past week, that you all seem… familiar with each other.”

Ben swallowed, “I don’t know them, I’ve never met them before this week.” The lie was obvious, he knew, but he had to at least try. If only he had access to the force, he could easily convince this man that anything he said was true. Well, if he could access the force, he wouldn’t even be here.

His lie was met with a hard punch to his jaw that had him back on the floor, palms reaching out to successfully break his fall. He looked back up at the guard just as he shouted at him that he was a liar, then he asked him another question, “You and the girl, you can both use the force. The Jedi have been dead for decades, so explain to me how it is I found you two on the same planet. How is it that you were both there at the same time if you have no idea who she is?”

Ben didn’t answer him, and another punch was thrown to his jaw. This time, Ben spat blood at the man’s feet, making it clear he wasn’t going to answer this one.

The guard scoffed, “Your woman tried that on me, too,” he said, wiping his boot on the nearby wall, smearing Ben’s blood at the base, “Do you really want to find out what that earned her?”

He already knew what he was in for, “She’s not my…” he looked down, unable to meet the man’s eyes, “She’s not… my possession.”

This time, the guard laughed, but he didn’t press Ben further on the subject as he motioned for the other three guards to come forward. Once again, he was seized by his arms, and held to stand straight before the lead guard sent a punch barreling straight into his gut.

The air was knocked from his lungs for a solid minute, and Ben wheezed involuntarily as he sought desperately for air. All four of the guards were laughing as he doubled over in their arms, their words lost on him as he worked to recover his breath.

“I’ll ask you one more thing,” the guard promised him, and though he stood a good two inches shorter than Ben, in his hunched over state, it felt like he towered over him, “Who are you? Answer this and all my other questions honestly, and we’ll let you go. We’ll put your knowledge up for sale and let you return to your side and no one will know it was you who gave it up.”

Ben looked at him for a moment, pretending to consider his offer before he spat more of his blood directly into the guard’s face, “No,” he said firmly, then he was met with another harsh hit to his gut.

“Then it’s time for my favorite part,” the guard hissed, then he ordered the others to strap him to the table, and he brought out a large needle from his pocket, its contents already filled with some sort of unfamiliar purple fluid. Though he’d never seen it before, Ben recognized it immediately, and he knew his life was about to get a lot worse.

He was still recovering from their latest blow to his solar plexus when they strapped him down, and he found himself barely capable of fighting against them. It wasn’t that he complied necessarily as they took his upper arms, his legs, and pinned them down, it was that he was already too exhausted to fight back. He had the unfair disadvantage of still being weakened from Rey’s torture just minutes earlier, and though he knew he’d faced worse, a small part of him worried he wouldn’t make it through this without telling them everything.

“You should know, we weren’t planning on touching any of you until next week. We didn’t think anything of you, but then you tried to escape,” the guard said, stepping forward, and rolling Ben’s sleeve up his arm with his free hand, “And no one tries to escape unless they have something important, something to hide. And the four of you knowing each other like that… well… Clearly you’ve got a history, and I’m willing to bet someone will pay me a lot of money to know that history. So, last chance to tell me… Who are you?”

Ben said nothing, then the guard shook his head at him, “Just so you know, this is only the beginning,” he promised, then he stuck the needle into Ben’s arm, and fire spread through his veins once more.

It felt like hours went by though it was only minutes. Experiencing the burning of the drug directly was infinitely worse than the second hand experience he’d had through Rey. He could only imagine what she was going through just then, and like she had earlier, he tried to force her from his mind, though it was no use, he was too far gone.

He grit his teeth at first to prevent himself from screaming, not wanting to give them the satisfaction, but after a few seconds he lost his control, crying out as the fire burned through him. He could feel Rey at the edge of his mind, warmth flooding through him that provided him just that one inch of control he needed to say nothing to the guard as waves of subdued happiness came over him.

Again he ran through his memories, thinking hard on the ones of her, knowing it suited the connection best, trying to prevent her from feeling the pain as much as himself. Eventually, though the burning was still overwhelming, it began to lessen for him just as it had for her when she’d been the one strapped to the table.

After ten minutes, the burning sensation began to fully diminish, leaving him feeling worn out and empty, like he’d just run a hundred miles over the course of a day. He coughed as the last of it began to leave him, and the cuffs holding him to the table were undone, then they began to drag him back to his cell. At least, that was what he’d initially thought they were doing.

When they approached the hallway that their cell resided on, the guards led him instead to the cell across from his, and threw him to the ground in there instead. He could barely move, but he lifted his head up to stare at them in confusion as the main guard walked out of the cell he was in, and back into the cell the other three remained in.

“We can’t have you four plotting again, we’ve got to separate you,” the guard said as he pulled one of them out of the cell, but through the two guards that remained pointing blasters at him, he couldn’t see who it was just yet, only their slippered feet, “Unfortunately, we’re full, so until someone else pulls what your friends pulled this morning…”

The cell door was opened wide, and Rey was thrown into the cell with him, landing on the floor with a harsh grunt. Ben could only watch as she rolled over to face him on the floor, finding that he was still too weak to move himself over to her.

“But sir, is it wise to put the force sensitives together?” Ben heard one of the guards ask as they closed the cell doors.

“They can’t use the force, they’re basically nothing,” the lead guard replied, then they heard the sound of the guards moving back into their old cell, presumably to grab Poe for the same delightful interrogation the other three had just gone through. Moments later, they heard the guards footsteps retreating down the hallway as the door to their old cell slammed shut.

It was truly over, they’d tried to escape. They’d fought valiantly, but in the end, that was it. They had lost. For now, they were stuck there, just waiting for the opportunity to strike again. One day they would escape. One day they would be free. One day, hopefully soon, they’d be sailing out into the stars together, back to the resistance. Back to their home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry


	9. Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How are you feeling?”
> 
> “Like hell. You?”
> 
> “Like hell,” she agreed, then her eyes drifted to the beds on either side of the cell, “We should probably get off the floor.”
> 
> Ben groaned again, “I don’t know if I’m ready to move yet.”
> 
> The corners of Rey’s lips turned upward in a hint of a smile, “Me neither.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back, y’all. Sorry I didn’t have this up sooner, I got an idea for a scene from the final chapter of this fic (of all things), and I wrote that instead of this in my free time (oops?) but at least now I know how to end it and I’m super excited for it. Gives me something to work towards. Anyways, here’s the chapter.

  
The moment they were alone, Rey rushed over to Ben, looking his body up and down and assessing his injuries. As far as she could see, there was only a cut to his jaw, and wherever they’d jabbed his needle in. Other than that, it seemed that Ben had mercifully escaped unscathed.

She took his face in her hands as she examined him, her fingers gingerly wiping away some of the blood that had gathered on his chin, crumbling within the shadow of a beard he was starting to develop in their six days in prison. “Ben, I’m so sorry,” she said softly, then she felt a hand on her arm.

When she looked up, Ben was staring at her through bleary eyes, his sorrow leaking through their bond as he whispered to her, “No, Rey, I’m sorry… I’m sorry...” Repeating the words over and over again until she shushed him gently.

“It’s not your fault,” she reminded him, “Do you hear me? It is not your fault.”

Ben shook his head, looking like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t quite have the strength to do it. She felt his exhaustion through the bond, knowing he was feeling the exact same way she felt. They’d both had to undergo the torture procedure twice without revealing a damn thing. All they’d had was each other’s presence in their minds, and Rey was positive that Ben sending her feelings of warmth and light through the bond was the only thing that helped her through. She could only hope she’d been able to do the same for him.

She’d been worried it hadn’t worked at first when she’d gotten back to the cell and they’d taken him. But Finn and Poe had held her hands and comforted her as she cried out into the pillow, experiencing the fire all over again just when it had started to fade. She was fairly certain she’d passed out at one point, but she couldn’t be sure.

It looked just then like Ben was about to pass out himself, his eyes unfocused as he met her gaze, lids closing then quickly opening again like he was resisting sleep and failing. She smiled down at him, “Ben?”

He woke up a little, “What?”

“I don’t think you’ll want to sleep on the floor,” she reminded him, gesturing to the two beds in the room. She was both relieved and disappointed that they would no longer have to share. Her relief stemming from the part of her that still didn’t trust him, that ignored him for the past three months whenever the force would bring them together. Her disappointment on the other hand… she knew precisely where that came from, though to even think it frightened her. She’d never felt feelings like those before, and if she acknowledged them, they would become real.

Ben hummed in agreement, then he sighed, “I’ll be fine, I just need another minute,” he said, his voice already sounding like he was half asleep.

Rey yawned, “You’ll be asleep… in another minute,” she slurred somewhat, finding herself almost too tired to argue with him.

It sounded like he was trying to say something else, but his voice trailed off before the words could make sense. Rey sighed as she laid down beside him, throwing her blanket over the both of them as best she could before she threw an arm around his waist. They wouldn’t make it through the night if they didn’t at least try to share their warmth.

She rested her head on his shoulder, and looked up at him as he slept. She’d never seen him look so peaceful, like he hadn’t seen horrors beyond even her wildest nightmares. In that moment he looked more like the boy Han and Leia had raised than ever before, he was completely Ben. There was no evidence that Kylo Ren had ever existed at all.

As his breathing evened out beneath her arm, she pressed the faintest kiss to his shoulder, then relaxed against him, surrendering herself to sleep’s clutches minutes later.

Rey’s dreams carried her straight to the past. In her dream they were back in the red throne room, and she was just striking down the last of the guards on her side of the room. She finished with him, watching as he fell back into the abyss of the Supremacy, then turned quickly, eyes searching for Ben.

She’d been here before, she was certain, but this was one of those dreams where she was utterly convinced that everything was real. She was really in the throne room in her mind, not lying on the floor with Ben as they recovered from their torture in the prison. It felt like she was really still there watching Ben struggling for life against the last of the Praetorian guards’ hold, she thought she was actually calling out his name as she threw her lightsaber over to him.

She watched in relief as he caught it, and ignited it into the head of the guard before he deactivated it just as quickly, and pushed the guard off of him as he stood to his full height.

Something was supposed to happen here, she knew. Vaguely in the back of her mind, she thought about the resistance fleet that was still being fired upon in the background. If she turned and looked out the window, she could see them, see the ship’s full of her friends exploding as the first order fired ruthlessly upon them.

But she wasn’t thinking about the fleet as her eyes locked on Ben’s, the heat within them filling her vision as she slowly started to walk toward him. He began to move toward her at about the same time, his eyes never leaving hers all the while as the space between them got smaller and smaller.

By the end of it, they were standing inches apart, both frozen in this one second of time and space. Neither of them said anything until Ben pulled Rey into his arms, the force of the movement nearly knocking her off balance. She quickly recovered, and wrapped her arms around him, letting him lift her into the air, and spin her around as she laughed in delight.

As Ben set her back down on the ground, he pulled away slightly, and wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. Rey’s heart beat like a hammer in her chest as his eyes drifted down to her lips, and she gave him a subtle nod as he began to lean in.

Her eyes closed as he got closer, and she moved toward him to meet him in the middle, but before their lips could meet, she heard the sound of thunder in her ears, and she looked up at Ben in confusion. There wasn’t supposed to be a thunderstorm here, they were in space. It was an impossibility for it to be thunderstorm here.

Before Rey could register that this was just a dream, her eyes burst open in the real world, and she gasped for breath as she woke up lying beside Ben. She looked up to find that he was still sound asleep, lightning illuminating his peaceful face in his slumber as she sighed with relief. At least he was resting peacefully.

Involuntarily, her eyes drifted down to his lips, and she felt the memory of their near kiss from her dream at the forefront of her mind. She could feel her heart still racing in her chest as she realized what they’d almost done, even if it was only in a dream. That unspoken thing between them, the thing she almost feared to make real had just been made so by her subconscious.

She knew that having feelings for him wasn’t a bad thing anymore, not when he’d just promised to rejoin the resistance with her hours earlier, but still she feared saying anything about it. In the situation they found themselves in, their captors discovering that they had any sort of romantic involvement could prove near fatal to their escape. They could use them against each other to get the answers they so desperately wanted, and Rey didn’t want to see him tortured because they wanted answers from her.

That was the logical part of her talking, at least. The not logical part was her fear of abandonment, the fear that even though he had indeed promised to go back to the light in some capacity, he would break his promise and present them to the first order immediately upon returning. The thought of him turning his back on them the moment they were truly free was a terrifying one, and one she wanted to push from her mind as soon as it came into being.

It wasn’t just the prospect of Kylo Ren returning that had her worried, but realizing that she had feelings for him alone was a terrifying feature in itself. She’d never felt anything like this. Sure she’d let herself fancy a person or two back on Jakku, but those had been small crushes on strangers who were just passing by. It had never developed into her dreaming about them, or needing to be held in the night. But she’d also never had any sort of shared trauma with those people, or the intimate connection she shared with Ben through the force.

Rey’s hand came up to caress his cheek once more as she watched him sleep, enjoying the sight of him in complete serenity. A part of her wondered if his dreams were anything like the one she’d just had, and she quickly shut that out. She needed to clear her thoughts by the time he woke up. If she couldn’t control her emotions when his eyes opened, he’d sense her feelings for him the moment he reached for the bond.

However, she was fully aware that they both knew they felt something for the other. She’d known for the past several days, and it was more so a matter of being ready to say it than it was knowing it was there. Who would say it first was the question they were both asking themselves.

As Ben began to stir beside her, she quickly quieted her thoughts, projecting the warmth but not the desire that the dream had just filled her with through the bond. She forced her eyes to look up at his as they opened, his body relaxing as they found hers.

“Hi,” she whispered as thunder boomed overhead.

“Hi,” he replied, then he looked around, and groaned as he realized where they were, “Still here, then.”

She nodded, “We’re still here,” she replied, “How are you feeling?”

“Like hell. You?”

“Like hell,” she agreed, then her eyes drifted to the beds on either side of the cell, “We should probably get off the floor.”

Ben groaned again, “I don’t know if I’m ready to move yet.”

The corners of Rey’s lips turned upward in a hint of a smile, “Me neither.”

Eventually though, they would have to move, and after another five minutes went by with Rey holding him on the floor, she sat up, and brushed herself off as she stood. She turned and offered her hand to him, pulling him up when he took it, then steadying him as he nearly fell into her. “You sure you can stand?”

“I can manage,” he replied, but he let her lead him over to the bed on the left side of the room nonetheless.

Once he was lying down there, Rey walked over to the door of their cell, wincing as thunder boomed overhead, “I wonder how much time has passed. It was snowing earlier.”

If he answered her, she didn’t hear him, she was too distracted by the sight of Finn in the window of the cell across from her, the one she’d spent the past five nights in. “Finn!” she called out, watching relief fill his eyes when he looked over at her.

“Rey, are you okay?” he asked, worry filling his features.

She nodded, “I’m fine,” she replied, “What’s happening? Did they bring Poe back yet?”

Finn suddenly fell silent, and she stared at him in concern. Just what had happened to Poe that had been so different from the experience she, Finn, and Ben had just had with the guards? “Finn, what happened?”

He sighed, “Poe’s been out of it for the last two hours since they brought him back. I haven’t been able to wake him up… Rey, I don’t know what to do…”

Rey’s heart dropped in her chest, “Oh, Finn…”

“I tried calling out to you earlier, but you didn’t answer, and then it started storming and I didn’t think you’d hear me.”

Her breath shook as she exhaled, “We were asleep, Finn, I’m so sorry.”

“No, no don’t worry,” Finn said, “You both had to go through that twice. I don’t know how you’re alive.”

Rey groaned, “I don’t either. Have they come by with dinner yet?”

Finn’s face once again fell, and she knew that they had. He didn’t have to say anything else for her to know that they had also failed to deliver food to either of their cells. Not only were they being tortured, they were now being starved. It wasn’t that she’d miss the prison’s absolutely shitty food-- it was shit even in comparison to the rations she’d been given back on Jakku-- but without at least some form of sustenance, they’d be weakened. Escape would become increasingly difficult the longer this went on, and Rey quickly realized that was exactly what their captors wanted.

“Shit,” she breathed, then she glanced back at Ben, who was looking up at her expectantly, “I need to see if Ben’s alright, Finn. See if you can wake Poe up one more time.”

Finn gave her a nod, then she turned back, and knelt down by Ben’s side, shaking a little as she moved, “Could you hear him?”

“No,” Ben replied, swallowing before he continued, “What’s going on?”

Rey sighed, and took his hand in hers as she sat down on the bed beside him, “Ben, they’re starving us,” she said, tightening her grip on his hand somewhat, “They were giving out dinner and Finn said they intentionally skipped our cells.”

“They’re trying to weaken us, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they want to make sure we won’t try to escape.” Rey sniffled as she spoke, feeling a sudden onslaught of tears coming on that she blinked away, not wanting to cry in their prison. Anywhere but here she could let herself cry, though she had a feeling that sobs were inevitable.

“Are you okay?” Ben asked, likely sensing her grief through the bond. She truly couldn’t hide anything from him.

She exhaled sharply, “No,” she replied, just as a single tear streaked down her cheek, “No, I’m not. It’s just… It feels hopeless now.”

“We’ll find a way out, Rey,” Ben promised, his thumb running across the back of her hand in a soothing manner.

“I know,” she replied, mentally slapping herself as another, traitorous tear left her eyes, “I’m sorry.”

She could feel Ben’s own eyes on her, watching her slowly fall apart mentally just as he had physically. “Come here,” he said, letting go of her hand, and moving over on the bed to make room for her.

“Ben, there’s only two of us now, we don’t have to share a bed,” she replied, instantly reminding herself of the night before when she had been the one to ask him to hold her. And though she was protesting, it was like when he’d asked her if she was sure. She was only protesting out of courtesy.

As usual, he saw right through her, quirking an eyebrow at her as she rolled her eyes, “Alright,” she said, then she shifted her blanket, wrapping it more tightly around her shoulders as she laid down beside him once again, shifting awkwardly until she was comfortable.

“Better?” he asked.

She instantly felt some of her grief dissipate as she laid down by his side, taking his arm in her hands and holding onto it like it was her lifeline. “Yeah,” she replied, then she frowned, “I wonder how long they’ll give us before they do it again. They never said.”

Ben hummed beside her, “I doubt they’d try to do it again so soon, our bodies can only take so much. They could kill us if they do it too often… The guard told me it was just the beginning. It’s only going to get worse from here.”

“Mmm, I don’t want to think about that,” Rey said, shifting her head so it rested on his shoulder, “I think we should just try to get as much sleep as we can before they do it again.”

“You’re probably right,” Ben replied, then they fell into a comfortable silence as they lay awake in the bed, neither one of them quite capable of sleep.

Meanwhile in Finn and Poe’s cell, the commander was still unconscious. Finn had tried everything he could think of. He’d pinched his cheeks, he’d shaken him, and more. None of it worked, Poe slept soundly on. The only signs that he was alive were the steady rise and fall of his chest, and the beating of his heart when Finn pressed his palm to it.

“Come on, Poe, you’ve seen worse than this,” Finn said softly, taking his friend’s--just what were they after that almost kiss--hand and squeezing it gently, “Wake up. I’ve been asking you for hours, and I need some sleep, and I can’t go to sleep without getting something from you, so wake up.”

Poe still didn’t stir, he just laid there and continued breathing, which was better than nothing, but Finn had long since grown frustrated, and he needed something more than just watching Poe sleep. It had been a weary two hours full of nothing but silence. Except for when the guards had brought dinner to the prisoners in other cells, it had been loud for that one moment. He no longer counted the thunderstorm outside as noise, it had faded to the background on the second day for him.

The commander on the other hand was not used to the thunder, and it happened to be just what he needed in order to wake up. A particularly loud, earth shattering boom sounded throughout the prison, shaking their whole cell viotlently, and wrestling Poe from his unconsciousness.

When Poe first came to, he was too weak to move. He couldn’t open his eyes. The only time he’d felt worse had been when they’d first been taken and woke up on board the transport ship. No, actually the only time he’d felt worse had been from the hangover he’d received the night he drank Rose under a table the weekend before they’d shipped off to this planet. That had been hell. This was nothing. He could get through this, he just had to take it slow.

It took another ten minutes, but eventually, Poe moved. At first it was just the lift of a finger, then he groaned, “What happened?”

Finn’s arms were around Poe instantly, and he held him close. The commander laughed into the embrace, bringing an arm up to hug him back as Finn lifted him into a sitting position. “You’re back!”

Poe smiled widely as Finn pulled away, holding his face in his hands as the other man looked him up and down, double checking that he was alright. “I’m back, buddy.”

“You were out for two hours, Poe, I didn’t know what to do,” Finn told him, sniffling quietly, “I was so worried.”

“Two hours?” Poe asked incredulously, then when Finn nodded, he shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair, “Wow.” He groaned again, his head feeling overwhelmingly like it had been hit with the blaster fire of a thousand stormtroopers.

  
“You alright?”

Poe nodded, “Fine, I just…” He looked around the room, his eyes landing on the empty bed he could usually find Kylo and Rey on, “What happened to…?”

“You don’t remember?”

When Poe shook his head, Finn sighed, “They took Rey right before they took you. They threw her in the cell right across from ours with Kylo. I was trying to talk to them earlier, but they both passed out. Not that I blame them.”

“They had to go through it twice,” Poe finished, wincing at the thought as he laid back down on the bed. He’d barely been able to watch both Rey and Kylo suffering from the other’s torture, watching Rey suffer from what they’d done to him had been infinitely worse, though seeing Kylo suffer because of what was happening to Rey had hurt him much the same.

Mostly it had been because he knew Rey was suffering, but in the last few days he’d softened to Kylo. It had certainly helped when he denounced the first order right in front of him, his jaw nearly dropping in shock as he watched. The action made him realize that there was a part of him in there still that was the man he knew to be Leia’s son, and perhaps with his leaving the first order, he truly was Ben Solo again, but only time would tell.

“Are they okay now?” Poe asked.

“I think so, yeah, they’re doing better. At least, Rey seems to be, I think Kylo was still pretty out of it when we talked.”

Poe swallowed nervously, “That’s good… yeah, that’s good,” he said, rubbing at his eyes as he fought a wave of sleepiness.

Finn immediately took notice. They may not have been bonded like Kylo and Rey, but they certainly had an uncanny sense of what the other was thinking and feeling. Poe knew that Finn could see just how purely exhausted he was. “Don’t fall asleep yet,” he said kindly, “I spent the last two hours waiting for you to wake up, I need a little more time with you awake.”

It was a fair argument. As tired as Poe was, he couldn’t quite bring himself to give into the urge he had to just shut his eyes and fall asleep then and there. No, he had to give Finn peace of mind first. He shifted onto his side, and propped his head up on his elbow, “What should we talk about then? We’ve got nothing but time to kill.”

Finn thought for a moment, “Our next escape attempt?”

“Cause the first one was such a success.”

“The next one will be.”

“How do you know?”

“I have a good feeling, I don’t know.”

Poe looked up at the ceiling, and thought through their failed plan. It had been good. It had been perfect until they decided to trust their neighbor, and even with the neighbor it still should have worked had Kylo and Rey been able to use the force. He’d had hope in that brief moment when it returned to them that maybe, just maybe, they’d done it, they’d finally been able to free themselves. Then it failed them in the most crucial moment.

“Poe?”

“Hmm?”

“What are you thinking about?”

Poe slowly sat up, and crossed his legs, “The plan was brilliant, it revealed to us exactly where they keep ships. We just need to get there again.”

“But how? They’ll never let us get out that way again. And they’ll probably have it under heavy guard this time.”

“We’ll take a different route,” Poe replied, as if it were that simple. He knew that it would be difficult to get there from any direction that wasn’t the way they came. They’d talked about all sorts of things when they were making the original escape plan.

It occurred to him that they had only entertained the idea of legging it out the window in the bathroom once in their discussions before they agreed to go with an indoor route. At the time it was decreed too hazardous, the risks being that there could be a sheer drop outside, the persistently terrible weather, and the fact that it was always pitch dark on the planet. But right now that seemed like a good option, like their only option.

Poe grinned, “Remember the bathroom windows?”

“The ones Kylo said would be easy to open?”

He nodded, “Those. I think they’re our best bet. And I know, they’re risky, but we can work around it. I think between the four of us we can work something out. We managed to last time, and we almost got out, Finn, we were so close.”

Finn looked at him apprehensively, “It’s better than nothing, I guess.”

Poe smiled at him and gave his hand a tug, “We’re going to make it, Finn, I promise. After all, I owe you a kiss.”

Laughter filled their cell as Poe’s words hung in the air, and they collapsed on the bed beside each other as Poe wrapped his arms around Finn. They could make it. He was positive. It felt like he could see the light at the end of the tunnel again, but before he could do anything else, he had to figure out the tunnel’s path.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m also thinking after I finish this about writing a geologist AU type thing, so stay tuned because I might write that before I’m even done with this. Also once chapter ten’s out, I might post the first chapter of a movie AU I’ve been working on and the movie it’s an AU if is a bit... unexpected. I don’t think it’s been done before and I don’t know if it’s going to be successfully pulled off but it’s going to be six (insanely long) chapters and it’s going to be wild. Wish me luck, and see y’all in chapter ten.


	10. Across the Aisle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re shivering.”
> 
> “It’s nothing,” she insisted, “I’m fine.”
> 
> Ben’s head cocked to one side slightly, and he raised an eyebrow at her before she finally conceded, “Alright, it’s a bit cold.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's been writing on the university library computers again? Bad habit of mine. Mercifully this was late at night when no one was around to be a witness. Anyway, we're almost halfway there, folks, and this chapter is much longer than usual, but it just wouldn't have worked any other way, there's a lot of story to tell.

Over the next four days, a routine was set up.

It began in the mornings. In the mornings they went to Finn and Poe’s cell, and plucked them one at a time to torment them. Once they finished with Finn and Poe, they served breakfast to all four of them, two hours after everyone else. It was the only meal they’d receive for the day, and the portion size—already too small—was halved. The four spent their spare time talking between their cells, much to the chagrin of their neighbors. Mercifully, these neighbors managed to stay quiet. 

In the afternoons they moved on to Ben and Rey, who spent the time when they weren’t the one being tortured writhing in pain in their sheets. Ben discovered on the second day that it helped them to send light emotions over to each other when they laid in the other’s bed, and that became part of their routine as well. 

Still, with all of the pain he and Rey were going through it was a miracle they hadn’t given away the secret of their bond. The fear of what would happen if their captors knew about it was the only thing that kept them going.

On the second day they were allowed much overdue showers, the head guard giving the reason that he hated to torture people who smelled like garbage. Once they finished, they were promised that it wouldn’t happen again until it was absolutely necessary. 

The third day was when they started to up the torture. They started cutting into their flesh once they were strapped down, forcing them to remove their shirts to make for a larger cutting area, then taking a sharp, short blade, and slicing through the top layers of their skin. Their blood now damn near soaked the floor of the torture chamber. Scars were going to be formed all across their chests and arms. No matter how much they tried to move on after they left the prison, they were going to have to look at those scars and remember what they went through.

They topped off the torture with the burning drug each time, though now that they were slicing them open, they seemed to have lessened the dose. It still made them howl with pain each time. 

Once they finished with Ben and Rey, the two would lie together in Ben’s bed for a good hour, not talking, not even thinking, just existing in each other’s presence. It was all they could do to keep from going insane. 

Several times Ben was tempted to ask Rey if she wanted to go back to sharing beds—he meant it as a source of comfort, really—but each time he remembered that unspoken thing they had between them, the one he knew they both were fully aware of. He wasn’t certain he wanted to be the one to cross that line first. He was less certain if she even  _ wanted _ him to cross that line. 

But the longer the torture went on, the more trouble he was having resisting saying  _ something _ about it. Every day he and Rey talked. Every day they grew closer, especially on the fourth day, when Ben finally told her the one thing he’d been meaning to tell her since he first told her he would leave the prison and stand by her side. 

They’d been eating breakfast when it happened. The day before, Poe had mentioned the idea of escaping through the bathroom windows again, and they’d been discussing the idea. 

“We could do it,” Rey was saying, “We’d likely have to scale the wall if what you’re saying about the possibility of a cliffside is true, but we could do it.”

Ben was terrified by the prospect of having to scale a wall which no one knew how high above the ground it rested. If they made one wrong misstep, it would mean certain, painful death. He also dreaded what the guards would do if they caught them again. How much would they up the torture if they saw their prisoners making a  _ second _ escape attempt knowing what had happened to them after the first? They would take it to unfathomable heights, and it would inevitably lead to one of them spilling their guts.

Once again, he was reminded of why they were all there. They had gone to meet him. Over the past ten days since they’d arrived, Ben had felt more and more guilty for his part in all this, and Rey only kept reminding him it wasn’t his fault. She didn’t know how wrong she was. It was exactly his fault. 

“I don’t know, Rey, it’s incredibly risky,” Ben protested.

“It’s the only shred of hope we have right now, so I’m working with it, and it’ll be much easier if you’re with me.”

Ben sighed, “It’s—”

“Don’t you dare,” she warned him, “How many times do I have to tell you it’s not your fault before it gets into your thick skull?”

“Because it is, Rey!” he said, wanting to shout, but knowing he couldn’t lest he risk the guards coming in for an early torture session. Rey leaned back from him, and he knew she felt the wave of pure anger rushing through their bond even though he didn’t scream. They took a moment to catch their breath, then Ben sighed, “I’m sorry,” he replied, meeting her eyes, “That was uncalled for."

Rey swallowed, “Why do you believe it’s your fault?” she asked, “Is it because you think you should’ve joined me that day on the Supremacy? Yes, you should have, but you could have done it any time between then and now. How is it your fault, Ben?”

Taking a deep breath, Ben struggled to keep his entire body from trembling as he told her why, “You went to that mining town to meet someone, an informant from the First Order requesting mercy if he told you everything.”

He watched her expression change to one of pure confusion. He was fairly certain she hadn’t told him that. Watching her puzzled face as she tried to contemplate how he knew her exact order of business on that planet would have been almost entertaining were it not for the anxiety he was feeling at finally telling her this. Once he let her know what he was there to do, he truly had no excuse to go back to the first order. He was finally abandoning it and all it had held for the last six years of his life with what he said next, and in a way, it felt freeing.

“Rey, he wasn’t just an informant, he was looking to switch sides,” he said, watching her jaw drop open slightly, her eyes unblinking as she listened to his every word, “But then he was captured by a group of low-lifes, and he lost his nerve and he told you some story about a mission for the first order.”

“... It was you…” Rey breathed, her expression unreadable, her emotions through the bond flying all over the place as she stared at him. He sensed a brief rage followed by a sheer joy that had their bond overflowing with light. 

Ben nodded, and a smile erupted on her face as Rey slid their empty breakfast plate out of the space between them, and launched herself at him on her knees, throwing her arms around him in a tight embrace as she laughed in delight. “It was you,” she repeated. 

“It was me,” Ben replied, wrapping his arms around her.

Rey pulled away from him, sitting back down on the ground, though not as far away as she’d sat just minutes earlier, “What made you change your mind?”

Ben looked at the ground, remembering vividly what had finally done it, “Hux wanted to destroy a planet that wouldn’t comply with the first order’s demands. I didn’t think the whole planet needed to die because of the whims of its government… And I realized the nature of the order I was leading. It wasn’t anything different than it had been in the past, the one I wanted to let die.”

“And then?”

“I told Hux I’d think it over, and I went to bed… only, you were there. Our bond had opened and you were asleep in my bed. And I looked at you, and I realized I still had a choice to make. So I made it. I took an old cargo ship and I signaled the resistance.”

“But you did it anonymously.”

“I didn’t want to get caught,” he explained, “I didn’t want it to be over before it started.”

Rey exhaled sharply, “So it was your fault,” she said slowly. 

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“What?”

“Okay.”

“Rey…”

“Ben, you were trying to do the right thing,” she said, resting a hand on his arm, “You were trying to come back to us. I was right, your choice wasn’t made.” WIth that, she pressed a kiss to his cheek, and he tried to contain the blush that threatened his cheeks as she pulled away with a smile. 

It felt like his cheek was on fire for hours after that. 

Even when he was being tortured, he found himself unable to care, too distracted by thoughts of the embrace they’d shared, the feeling of Rey’s lips on his cheek. Sure, it hurt, but his thoughts combined with what Rey was sending through the bond numbed the pain by half.

When it was her turn under the knife, it was that memory that he thought of the entire time he could feel her pain. By the time it was finished, Ben was no longer reeling from the agony of being tortured. He felt tired, but not completely worn down to the point where he would pass out again. 

As he waited for Rey to be brought back to the cell, he walked up to the barred window of his cell, and stared out of it to find Poe doing much the same in his own cell. The commander waved to him from across the aisle, and Ben blinked in shock, taken aback by the friendly gesture. It was true that things hadn’t just been changing between him and Rey, but they’d been changing for him with Finn and Poe as well. 

Poe in particular had thawed towards him he noticed. It had been slow, but steady. They were firm allies now, and they had been even before Ben had confirmed on their sixth day of imprisonment that he would be joining them once they were free. If Ben was being honest, he didn’t mind the idea of being allies with Poe, even if just ten days earlier they had been at each other’s throats. 

Ben returned the wave, his mouth forming an awkward, thin line of a smile. The sight of it had Poe beaming at him, then the other man looked up and down the hallway, “I’m guessing they’re done?”

He nodded, “Yeah, she’ll be back in a minute.”

Poe sighed with relief, then he shook his head, “I don’t know how you’re doing it. I would’ve given up a long time ago if I had to go through that twice.”

Ben scoffed lightly, “We’ve both been through worse. Being tortured by Snoke…” his voice trailed off as his memory took over, each day under Snoke’s influence flashing in front of his eyes. 

“Couldn’t be any worse than being tortured by you,” Poe said, a hint of bitterness in his voice. When Ben once again met his eyes, he noticed Poe wincing as he realized what he said, “Sorry, I know you’ve changed, but—”

“No, you’re right,” Ben replied, clearing his throat before he spoke, “I… I’m sorry I ever did that to you.”

Poe’s jaw dropped slightly, reminding him of Rey earlier when he’d told her about his true intentions when he’d been captured. But Poe quickly recovered, and gave him a nod, “It’s okay,” he said, then he scratched his head, “Rey told us… About what you did. That you were the one we were supposed to meet on that dump of a planet.”

Ben froze, unsure of how to react to Poe’s news, “I…”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Poe replied, “I’m not mad…” he quickly retracted his statement when Ben quirked an eyebrow at him, “Okay, I’m a little mad.”

Ben laughed, then he stopped when he heard the sound of the guards marching down the hallway toward them. “We’ll have to finish this later, they’re coming,” he told Poe, then the two men backed away from their respective windows, and sat down on their beds. 

A minute later, the door to their cell opened with a forceful bang as usual, and Rey was thrown in with a loud, dull thud as she hit the floor. Ben was by her side in an instant, barely noticing when the guards shut the door behind them as he examined her. 

A cut ran deep over one eye. It had scabbed over slightly, but was still bleeding enough to leave a thin trail down her cheek. Blue and purple bruises were speckled across her arms like a horrid painting, and her clothes were stained in several other places where they’d carelessly cut into her. Her eyes were closed as she breathed somewhat evenly, telling him she’d gone unconscious from their latest beating. 

It was in that moment he knew, the moment they freed themselves, their captors were absolutely fucking dead. He rested a hand gently on the side of Rey’s face, allowing it to slide further back into her hair, stroking it gently as she slept. 

He stared at her in wonder. In only a week of being with her, she’d managed to change him completely. He’d been heading back down the path toward the light for a while, he supposed, but it had still seemed impossible. A part of him felt like he could never truly return to the light, but something about the young Jedi lying before him sent his entire life spinning out of control in all the right ways. 

With a sigh, Ben pressed an almost cautious kiss to her forehead, and reached his arms beneath her, lifting her into his arms in a way all too reminiscent of the first time they’d met. The corners of his lips twitched into a hint of a smile as he looked down at her sleeping form in his arms, remembering how far they’d come from the malice they’d exchanged with each other that first day. They’d gone from pure, unadulterated loathing to… Whatever the hell they were now. The grin remained on his face as he gently set her down on the bed, removing the thin sheet and scratchy blanket from beneath her, and covering her with it carefully. 

He tucked her in as best he could given the limited material he had to work with, then proceeded to turn and head for his own bed, resisting the urge he had to lie down beside her, and wait for her to wake. He could do that from his own miserable hell hole, but as he turned away, he heard her groan quietly. 

Without a second thought, he was kneeling at her bedside, “Rey?” He asked softly, reaching a hand out for hers, and letting go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding when she squeezed his hand. 

“Ben,” she breathed, her eyes slowly fluttering open, then closing with a groan as she turned away from the light filtering in through the window on the cell door. 

“How are you feeling?”

Another groan left her lips as she covered her eyes with her free hand, “Like hell.”

“Is there anything I can do?” his voice was lowered to almost a whisper as he spoke, not wanting to make her obvious headache any worse than it already was. 

She slowly turned her head toward him, and it was only then that he noticed the slight tremor in her body, “No, I’m fine,” she replied, smiling kindly at him, a smile that he would never admit made his heart start racing, “But thanks.”

“You’re shivering.”

“It’s nothing,” she insisted, “I’m fine.”

Ben’s head cocked to one side slightly, and he raised an eyebrow at her before she finally conceded, “Alright, it’s a bit cold.”

He smiled again, a small part of him satisfied that he’d been right as he squeezed her hand, then stood, and walked over to his own bed, grabbing his own bedsheets before he returned to her. Then despite her protests, he covered her with it as well, and before he could turn and go back to his own mattress, he felt a light tug on his wrist. 

“Ben, you’ll freeze.”

“You’re wounded, you need it more.”

“So are you. Take back this damn sheet.”

“Your injuries are worse, Rey.”

She scoffed, then she lifted the sheets, and scooted against the wall, “Come here, you idiot.”

He froze, not knowing how to respond to her invitation at first, but then it registered with his brain what she was asking him to do, and he didn’t hesitate to move. As if he were approaching a frightened animal, he came to her, sitting down on the bed, then lying down beside her, facing the woman who had irrevocably changed his life, maintaining eye contact the entire time, until his head rested beside hers on the pillow. 

Rey’s lips spread into a smile as she threw the sheets over him, and wrapped an arm around his waist, his flesh burning through the thin, prison shirt where she touched him. He returned the gesture by throwing his arm around her, and pulling her to him, relishing in the feeling of her warm body against his. 

She sighed against him, then he heard her breathe in deeply, “It’s getting worse,” she told him, “They were harsher this time, tougher than I’ve ever seen... I thought for a moment...” she trailed off, leaving him concerned. 

“You thought...?” He said, encouraging her quietly to keep going as his fingers traced small circles around the ridges of her spine. 

She shook her head, “It’s nothing.”

“Rey... you don’t need to hide anything from me.”

She looked up at him, and he could sense both of their hearts beating a little faster the moment they realized their faces were mere inches apart. For a moment, they sat still, drinking in the sight of each other, then she spoke, “I thought I would die alone,” she confessed, a hint of tears lining her voice, “I thought that I’d never felt so alone after the cave on Ahch Too, I was wrong.”

Ben’s heart dropped in his chest at her words, “I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again,” he said softly, “you’re not alone.” 

She smiled into his chest, remembering his words from the cave, the memory feeling like another lifetime, a forever ago she could never forget. That night had been the first time they’d truly connected with no malice in either of their voices, the first time she’d trusted him enough to let him in, even a little bit. 

“Neither are you,” she replied, repeating what she’d told him in response, his breath nearly hitching at the thought of the parallel to the touching of their fingertips that would inevitably follow. 

Ben slowly removed his hand from around her waist, and found hers, pulling it from him until their hands rested in the thin space between them, then he laced his fingers through hers, enjoying the heat spreading between their palms. He could feel her pulse quicken beneath him, heard her gasp slightly at the contact. 

In the dim light, they looked at where they were joined, then up at each other, suddenly both hyper aware of just how much things had changed between them, of just how intimately connected they were, how they’d always been. Ben swallowed nervously, breath quickening as he noticed her leaning closer to him, pulled to him as if by a magnet. He felt himself moving toward her, too, but when they were close enough that he could feel her breath on his face, he stopped, “We should sleep,” he said, “They’ll be back for more tomorrow.”

She paused for a moment, then she moved away nodding, “You’re right,” she said softly, her breathing shaky as a wide array of emotions fell into the bond, “Goodnight, Ben.”

“Night, Rey,” he replied, running his thumb over the back of her hand where they were still linked, and pressing another kiss to her forehead before he closed his eyes, surrendering to sleep’s clutches moments later. 

The past four days had been quite different in Finn and Poe’s cell. 

Though they didn’t have to go through the torture twice unlike their friends, they didn’t have the assistance of kind, warm memories to guide them through it either. It likely would’ve helped them through it. 

Each day of the four, they came back into their cells nearly passed out each time. By the fourth day, Poe was slammed to the floor panting hard, feeling as near death as he’d ever been. It had almost been worse than what Kylo Ren had done to him, the torture still fresh in his mind even through the passage of time. 

That day, they had cut into him more severely than they ever had before, granting him a new cut over his collarbone and increasing the time that the drug burned through his system. His cut was still bleeding as he writhed on the floor, barely responsive to Finn’s hands on his arms as he asked if he was okay. His only response was to groan in pain. He’d meant to say he’d been better, but the only noise he was capable of making in that moment was a groan. 

Finn helped him up into the bed they’d agreed to keep sharing despite no longer having the need to. With both of them fully aware and having acknowledged their feelings for each other, it had felt weird to even entertain the idea of sleeping in separate beds. Poe was always sure to leave Finn’s bed when the morning came, though, not wanting the guards to get the idea that they were a couple when they saw them continuing to share the bed. He didn’t want to know how much worse things would become for them if they knew. 

He felt Finn’s hands reaching for the top of his shirt, then he pulled it down slightly to look at the wound they’d created beneath it. At last, his voice came to him for a dose of his typical sarcastic wit, “It’s just a scratch,” he said, laughing slightly though he knew that his horrid gash wouldn’t heal very well without some form of stitches. He needed to see a medical droid, but not desperately so. Hell, he’d argue that they all needed to see a medical droid. All four of them. Even Kylo, who he still had mixed emotions on despite all he’d done to prove himself. 

“Poe, this is bad,” Finn replied, removing the pillow from beneath Poe’s head—which caused him to groan in pain again—and taking the case off of it to press it onto the wound before he returned the pillow. 

Poe wanted to come up with another witty retort, but he was distracted by the sensation of Finn’s warm hands pressed to his chest. He could only hope that Finn didn’t feel his heart race a little faster within the confines of his ribcage. If he did notice, he didn’t comment on it, and for that he was grateful. Instead of his expected comeback, he sighed, “You should probably leave this to me, the guard will be in with breakfast any minute now that they’re done with us.”

Finn looked hesitant, but he didn’t protest, “And they can’t catch us together,” he replied, catching on to Poe’s unfinished statement. 

Poe nodded solemnly, “Right,” he replied, taking the pillowcase from Finn’s hands, and pressing it into his wound, grimacing at the new sting of pain it brought him as Finn rose from the bed, and walked over to his own. 

Twenty minutes later, Poe's wound had stopped bleeding, and they were almost done with breakfast when Poe heard Rey and Kylo’s voices getting louder in their cell. On days like this when the weather was merely quiet snowfall, they could sometimes hear them talking. It was never loud enough for them to make out what they were saying, but it was always enough that they knew they were having a conversation. Sometimes Poe wondered what they talked about, but most of the time he concerned himself with his and Finn’s own business.

At least, he did until he heard,  _ “Because it is, Rey!” _ clear as day in the cell across from theirs. His and Finn’s heads snapped up then, brows furrowing in concern. If they didn’t watch their volume, the guards would come marching down the hall at any moment. 

It seemed that Rey and Kylo had the same fears, their voices lowering back to a normal volume a minute later. Poe looked at Finn, “I wonder what that was about.”

Finn looked like he was about to reply when he heard Rey’s faint laughter, a stark contrast to the anger of Kylo’s voice just a minute prior. The two men looked at each other, then nodded as they tuned their ears to the goings on of Rey and Kylo’s cell. 

For a moment it was silent, then they heard the sound of metal hitting the ground—likely belonging to their breakfast plate—and once again all was silent. They kept their ears tuned to the cell, but all they could hear was the usual quiet muttering.

His interest piqued, Poe decided to ask them about it later, waiting until after breakfast when they’d taken Kylo away for his torture session to ask Rey about what had happened earlier before they got too carried away with him and she was indisposed. 

Once they’d retrieved Kylo and his footsteps disappeared down the hall, Poe walked up to the window, and called out Rey’s name. She appeared a moment later much to his relief, and he sighed, cutting right to the point since they had maybe another minute before Kylo’s torture would begin, “Rey, what happened? We heard you guys talking earlier.”

“It’s not what you think,” she said, her face pressing up against the bars, “I was trying to figure out why he keeps blaming himself for all this, and he told me.”

Poe’s head cocked to the side curiously, “What did he say?”

Rey smiled, “Poe, the informant we were supposed to meet that day? It was him, it was Ben.”

Poe nearly stepped back in shock, “What?” he asked, taking a second to process the news. It felt like both a blessing and a curse. It meant that it was true what Kylo had promised about coming back to the resistance with them. It meant that Ben Solo had truly returned, and that Kylo Ren was starting to become nothing but a dead name. But at the same time it meant that it truly was Kylo’s— _ Ben’s _ —fault that they were trapped here with almost no foreseeable way out. 

His friend nodded firmly as she grinned at him, “It’s true, Poe, he was trying to come back to us, that’s why we’re here.”

“Why didn’t he say so earlier?”

Rey pressed a palm to her head, and he realized that their time was quickly running out, “I’ll tell you later, Poe, I need to—”

“I know. And Rey?”

“Yeah?”

“Good luck.”

She gave him one last smile, then she disappeared from the window of her cell, and Poe returned to his and Finn’s bed, where Finn was looking up at him expectantly to tell him what had happened. “Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?”

Finn laughed, “Surprise me.”

“The good news is that Kylo—Ben… Whatever he’s going by these days was the informant we were supposed to meet on that planet. The bad news is that this makes it true that he’s the reason we’re here.”

He watched as Finn’s features shifted to make the expression of pure shock that appeared on his face as he spoke. “Are you serious?”

Poe laid down on the bed beside him, “I’m serious. I tried to ask Rey why he didn’t tell us sooner, but we didn’t have time.”

Finn scoffed, his eyes wide as he stared up at the ceiling, “... So it was him?”

“Guess so.”

“Huh…”

“You know this means he was serious right? He’s going to come back with us when this is over,” Poe said, “This isn’t just a truce anymore it’s an alliance. He’s actually coming back, he’s actually… On our side.”

Finn hummed a response, then he shifted so he was on his side, looking at Poe, “I never would’ve expected it. In all the time I knew him…” Poe could see the memories of his time with the first order drifting before his eyes, his friend was no longer in their cell at that moment, he was somewhere far away and long ago. “I only ever knew him as the guy who was always slashing into stuff with his lightsaber for barely any reason. I didn’t know he had a whole other past from the first order until you and Rey told me.”

“He’s a different person now, he’s… Ben Solo…” Poe replied, crossing his arms over his chest, “And we both know what’s brought him back to the light. Well, close enough to the light.” 

“Rey,” Finn finished for him, “She somehow managed to do the impossible.”

“She’s good at that,” Poe replied, then he laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I think I know why we heard the plate crash on the floor earlier.”

“Why—? Poe!” Finn smacked him lightly on the arm as Poe laughed obscenely. 

Poe smirked as he came down from his fit of laughter, “What? We both saw them before they separated us. We both know there’s something going on there.”

“Doesn’t mean I want to think about it,” Finn replied, “I haven’t been able to get that image of him naked out of my head since they told us about the shower incident.”

“I wonder if that was actually an accident.”

“Poe!”

“Oh, stop complaining, we both know it was. They’re both either oblivious or they’re too awkward to do anything about it. And I’d bet money they’re just too awkward. They have to know, they’re mentally connected,” Poe mused, then he turned his body toward Finn, “Can’t say the same about you and I though, we had to figure that out on our own.”

Finn swallowed, “Yeah, we did,” he said quietly, then a silence fell over their cell as they stared heatedly into each other’s eyes. It got so quiet that Poe swore he could hear their hearts beating in the space between them, which in a bed that size wasn’t exactly a large one. 

“I’m serious about when we get out of here, you know,” he said as he swallowed nervously, “We’re going to have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

Finn chuckled quietly, “Believe me, I know you’ll live up to that promise.”

It was then that Poe heard the guards returning Ben to the cell. At this point he would bet that he could hear them coming from a mile away. He rested his hand briefly on Finn’s cheek, then he rushed to his side of the cell, and pretended to be asleep as he waited for the guards to leave again. 

Half an hour later, Poe stood again, and looked out the window of the cell, watching the guards retreat back down the hallway. After a moment, he saw Ben in the window, and he smiled slightly as he gave him a small wave. He looked surprised, but Ben waved back a second later, causing Poe’s smile to widen. 

The two held an easy conversation then. It felt almost like he was talking to one of his comrades—well, technically he was, but he didn’t have quite the same history with Ben Solo as he had with the rest of the resistance—as they spoke. It wasn’t a long conversation, but Poe left it feeling more certain about Ben when he went into it. 

He’d been left shocked when Ben apologized to him for what he’d done. What had happened to him when the first order captured him had been the source of many a nightmare over the past several months since it happened. It was safe to say he’d been haunted by it, having his mind violated the way it had been. 

He had thought it wouldn’t be possible for him to forgive Kylo Ren, but hearing the apology from Ben Solo had been something else entirely. 

When he stepped back from the window after the conversation finished, he felt enlightened. It must’ve shown on his face as he turned around and sat on his bed, since Finn gave him a curious look as the guards drew closer and closer to return Rey to her cell. He winced as he heard her body hit the ground limply when they threw her inside, knowing by that sound alone that she must have fallen unconscious this time. If Ben and Rey were losing consciousness during torture… he didn’t want to think about it. 

“What’s going on?” Finn asked after the guards had disappeared. 

Poe turned to him as he leaned his back against the wall, “He apologized,” he told him, “Not for getting us stuck here… he apologized for torturing me…”

Finn’s eyes were wide, “He actually apologized? Kylo Ren apologized?”

“Not Kylo Ren… that was… that was Ben Solo…”

Finn thought for a moment, then he sighed, “When we get out of here I think we might win this war. End it once and for all.”

“That’d be great,” Poe said, walking across the room to sit beside Finn, wrapping an arm around the other man’s shoulders as he thought about all that could be once they were finally free of the prison. “We’re going to be unstoppable… If he can keep his hands off of Rey other long enough to fight.”

“Really, Poe?”

Poe let loose another laugh, “Sorry,” he said, “You know, it’s also going to be a problem for me, too.”

“You’re going to have a problem keeping your hands off Rey?” Finn joked, and this time it was him who was on the receiving end of a smack. He almost roared with laughter as he doubled over on the bed, and Poe shook his head, smiling as he looked down at Finn. 

“I meant  _ you _ , Finn,” he said as Finn sat up again, and he cupped his jaw, “The resistance is going to have to put up a no fraternizing rule until the war’s over.”

Finn laughed again, though he quickly stopped, “We have to get out of here first.”

Poe scoffed, “Finn, with all that’s on the line,  _ nothing _ is stopping us from getting out of here. You hear me?  _ Nothing. _ ”


	11. Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How are you guys holding up?” he asked, leaning against the door, and crossing his arms over his chest. 
> 
> “Not great,” Ben muttered in response.
> 
> Poe smirked, “Rey told us you decided to be a wise ass yesterday,” he replied, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that joke first.”
> 
> “It wasn’t worth it, if you’re wondering.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I figure eleven chapters in I should probably let y'all know that I'm also on tumblr under the name sand-its-everywhere if y'all want to go over there and give me more than one follower lmao. Anyway, this chapter was all sorts of fun to write, and we're about to kick some serious plot into gear. Sorry it's another hella long one.

On the twelfth day of their capture, Rey woke up in Ben’s arms—they’d been sleeping in his bed since the day he’d revealed to her that it was him they were supposed to have met—and the wind was howling with blizzard conditions outside. Going by the lack of lights in the prison, they hadn’t even served breakfast to the other prisoners yet. It was early in the morning. At least, it felt like it. With a lack of sunlight on the planet, it was impossible to tell.

But that morning something changed. For the first time when Rey looked up to the window, she saw the faintest glow of light in the darkened, stormy sky. After twelve long days, it seemed the planet was at last beginning its dawn as it turned toward its sun. The dim blue wasn’t quite enough to bring light into the cell, but against it she could see the enormous, white snowflakes that pelted the planet around them. 

The sight of snow made her smile. She no longer felt the cold when she was lying in bed next to Ben, who was still sleeping beside her. All she wanted was to be able to go back out into it, to run straight into the snow and never look back. Vividly, she could remember the feeling she’d had on their second day in the prison when she’d seen it for the first time out of the context of battle. It was just as striking then as it was now, but still she longed to see it outside of the prison. She longed to see it as a free woman. 

Burying her face in Ben’s chest, she sighed, longing for the days she’d taken for granted outside of the prison, missing the time she’d had when she wasn’t getting tortured everyday. As Ben’s heart beat beneath her, though, she was reminded of the one shred of good that had come out of all of it. Though he swayed to the dark side of the force, he was the light at the end of the tunnel. 

She felt him as he slept through the force, serenity washing over the bond in gentle, rolling waves that soothed her as she listened to his heart beat, to his chest rising and falling. The wind howling violently outside their window had nothing on the peaceful noise of that heartbeat, of his breathing. 

It took her a moment to realize just how much attention she was paying to those things. It was perhaps a little too much if she wanted to succeed in keeping things platonic—until they escaped the prison, at least. If he sensed the feelings she was no doubt projecting into their bond, it would become obvious immediately. 

Things were barely platonic as it was, with the gentle kisses he’d pressed to her forehead two days prior, the way they held each other at night, and the way they were connected through the force. That in and of itself was far too intimate for people who were newly friends. It was safe to say he was definitely no longer her enemy, but what he was to her now was more unclear than ever. 

Before she could make up her mind, the lights of the prison switched on, and the guards marched toward their row of cells to bring the other prisoners breakfast and abuse Finn and Poe. With a sigh, Rey caressed Ben’s still sleeping face in one palm, then she carefully returned to her own bed. 

The guards had yet to actually examine their cells as they passed in the mornings, not giving a damn about any of them until it came time to interrogate them, but the fear of what would happen if they were caught remained all the same. They could certainly try to claim they were huddling for warmth, but it would likely hold no merit with their captors. 

Rey groaned as she shoved herself beneath her sheets, then waited patiently while the guards passed. Ben managed to sleep through it all somehow, the lucky bastard. 

He’d had it rough the day before, though. At some point apparently he’d cracked a joke at one of the guards’ expense, and they didn’t find it nearly as funny as he did. When he returned to the cell, he was barely conscious, and Rey—though weakened—rushed to help him into bed, tucking in beside him as he succumbed to sleep. 

Once the guards’ footsteps faded down the hall, she heard him yawn, and his hand reached out in the empty space on his bed. He jolted awake when he found nothing, and looked about the room for her with a twinge of panic in his eyes. Relief filled their bond when he saw her lying in her bed, staring at him with a smile on her face. “Morning.”

“Morning,” he replied, then he rubbed his eyes, and took in a deep breath, letting it out as slowly as he sat up. 

Rey’s eyes fell immediately to the bloodstains scattering the back of his shirt, sticking to his back even now that it had dried, the blood likely having scabbed over against the fabric of his shirt. They’d really gone hard on him the day before, she realized. It had been one thing to feel it second hand, but seeing it like this… Even now she could feel his pain as he struggled to move. It felt like her entire back was covered in burning embers. Not quite the fire it had been yesterday, but still aching nonetheless. 

“Ben, your shirt,” she said quietly, getting out of the bed, and walking back over to his to examine him. 

He shook his head, “It’s nothing, I’m fine,” he lied, turning the wounded area away from her as she sat down behind him. 

Rey almost glared at him, and she pulled his shoulder lightly so she could see it again. It was obvious he barely had the strength to resist her as he turned with her touch, letting her examine the bloodstained shirt with care. 

The hideous beige was now stained a deep, dark crimson, and when she got too close to it, the metallic tang of blood filled her sense of smell. She’d grown used to that smell over the past few days since they’d started using a knife on them, but this was almost overwhelming. The stains were spread out along his back, though they were overwhelmingly large along the planes of his shoulder blades, which had undoubtedly seen the worst of the action. 

“Ben, I need to look at this,” she told him, then Ben slowly nodded, and he reached a hand behind himself to begin to remove his shirt, the one thing preventing her from seeing what they’d done to him. She grimaced in pain as he tore the shirt away from the dried blood on his back, but didn’t make a sound. 

Despite the circumstances, she couldn’t help the involuntary racing of her heart in her chest, hammering against her rib cage as Ben set the shirt down in front of him. She forced herself to focus, her eyes gazing over the wounds to his back. There were five distinct cuts. Three were placed on the upper regions by his shoulder blades, and the other two were placed midway down on either side of his spine. Each one ran at a different angle, and Rey could remember the pain she’d felt through the bond with every cut. 

The ones lower down looked to be shallower, and were already almost completely healed. Perhaps those wouldn’t scar as easily, but the ones by his shoulders? They certainly would. They’d mostly scabbed over, but one was still damp with red. Rey took her sleeve over her hand, and dabbed at it gently, attempting to send feelings of calm over the bond to distract him from the pain. 

“It doesn’t look infected,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief as she ran her fingers over his wounds, feeling for any sign of fluid leaking from them, “I’m no medic, but… maker, Ben what were you thinking?”

Ben laughed lightly as he turned to face her, “I wasn’t,” he admitted. 

Rey’s eyes immediately fell down to his bare chest, swallowing nervously as she tried not to take in the sight of him sitting half naked in front of her, but that was getting increasingly difficult the longer he remained in that state in front of her. It made her feel things physically,  _ mentally  _ that she hadn’t felt in a long time, and if she dared to acknowledge it, she’d be crossing that line they were both struggling not to cross. She crossed her arms over her own chest as she met his eyes, “Ben, we can’t say or do anything, it’ll just make things worse.”

Ben held his stained shirt in front of him, and it became clear that he wasn’t in their cell, not mentally at least, but he was back in that torture chamber with the guards cutting into him, remembering the one mistake that had doomed him to that fate. “I know,” he said after a long moment, his face looking more resigned than ever, “I just…”

“What?” 

“I was under Snoke’s influence all my life, Rey,” he began, his hands shuffling awkwardly in his lap as he spoke, “When I finally got the upper hand, when I finally killed him? I felt free.” Rey took his hand in hers, listening intently as he continued speaking, “Then these men came in…”

“And you were trapped all over again,” Rey finished. 

He nodded, “I didn’t want them to think they were getting to me, so when they asked me, ‘Who are you,’ I decided to be a wise ass, and I said, ‘your mother’s bed warmer.’”

Rey giggled slightly at first, then her laughter quickly devolved into full blown cackling as she leaned into Ben’s chest, only stopping when she realized she was now face to face with his rather well sculpted torso. She backed away with a blush and a smile on her face, “Are you serious? That’s what all this is about?”

He gave her another nod, and she scoffed, “You really are a Solo.”

Their eyes locked once again, an awkward energy settling between them as they remembered Han and what had happened to him. Regret filled Ben’s eyes, which she could swear she saw misting before he turned away, and pulled his shirt back over his head. Mentally, Rey slapped herself for bringing his father up, knowing that it was still a sensitive subject. 

They were quiet for a moment, then Ben’s breath left him shakily, “Remember the night before we tried to escape, and we talked about our biggest regrets?”

“Of course.”

“Killing him was mine.”

“I know,” Rey told him, resting a hand on his shoulder. 

Ben turned to face her, his regret almost overwhelming through the bond now as his dark eyes bore into hers. “I didn’t hate him,” he said, his voice almost a whisper, “I never did.”

The guards stomping back down the halls entered their ears just then, and Rey pressed a kiss to the top of Ben’s head before she returned to her side of the room, and they waited for the guards to trade out Poe for Finn.

After that, the day went on somewhat uneventfully. They were brought breakfast an hour later, they talked with Finn and Poe, then the guards came and took Ben away for his time in the torture chamber. All was passing as usual until the moment they began to actually torture Ben. 

Rey had prepared herself like normal, lying in Ben’s bed, gripping Ben’s sheets in her hands, burying her face in  _ his  _ pillow as she prepared to face the inevitable. After yesterday, she’d been hopeful that they’d gotten all of their aggression for his joke out then, and this day wouldn’t be different from any of the others. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for her that day. 

They skipped cutting Ben. They skipped beating him. They went straight into the burning drug without giving either of them a chance to prepare themselves mentally. Before Rey could conjure the slightest positive image to send light over the bond, she was writhing in pain, biting down into the pillowcase to keep from screaming. 

It hurt worse than it ever had before. Somehow they’d found a way to make the drug worse, and she didn’t want to know how. It took everything she had not to open her mouth and scream in agony. She didn’t even want to think about what Ben was feeling, experiencing it directly so soon after what they’d done to him the day before. 

A part of her feared that this would break him, and not only him, but her as well. If they broke, everything went to hell, and her resolve along with his—she could feel it—was being worn down more and more by the second. 

Fear and anger coursed through her as she thought about what they were doing to him, what would happen to him if he lost his ability to keep quiet, and what had been done to them all over the past several weeks. The energy swirled around her, and in a burst of pure agony fueled rage, Rey lashed out, grunting loudly into the pillow. 

At that exact moment, she heard the familiar angry whine of metal on concrete, and she froze, the pain coming through the bond slowly beginning to peter out as she turned her head to look at where the sound had come from. Her jaw dropped when she saw her bed had come halfway across the room, leaving white trails where it had scrapped along the floor in her direction. 

She breathed heavily as she stared at it, thinking only that this was impossible. There was no way she could’ve been able to move that without… no… that would be too easy.

Cautiously, Rey sat up, grimacing at the pain the action brought her as she straightened her spine, and stared at the bed. Taking in a deep breath, she raised her hand slowly, and reached out for the force with her mind, willing the bed to move closer to her. 

Nothing happened. 

Readjusting herself, she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, and tried again, focusing all of her energy into getting that bed to move again. She reached out for the force, feeling for it as she’d been trying to do periodically for the past twelve days. 

Still, nothing happened. 

Rey leaned back against the wall in frustration, her head swimming with confusion and the leftover pain from the drug they’d injected into Ben as she wondered what the hell had just happened. She thought through the last two minutes, recalling the final moment of agony in horrid detail. It was then that she realized she’d felt the force surrounding her in the moments before the bed had shifted. She’d felt it like she once had before they’d been captured.

She could always feel the force around her, but over the past twelve days it had been just out of reach, like it was on the top shelf in a cabinet and she was just two inches shy of reaching it at all times. In the second she moved the bed, she had felt it in her grasp once again. In the throes of her agony, she had lashed out and finally found the force again. 

She didn’t have time to think on it too hard, though. The guards were already marching back down the hall to return Ben and grab her. Heart racing, she hurriedly pushed the bed back into place by hand, wincing at the groaning of the metal as it moved, and stood by it patiently, ready to accept her fate. 

However, this time when they slammed the door open and threw Ben to the ground, they completely ignored her, and headed right back out of the room. She breathed hard as the cell door slammed shut behind them, but didn’t question it as she hurried over to Ben. When she knelt by his side, much to her dismay she realized he was unconscious, and she shook him gently. He needed to be awake, he needed to know what had happened, and she needed to know why they had skipped out on torturing her, and settled for just letting him fall limply to the floor instead. 

“Ben?” She whispered softly, tapping his face lightly with her hands, “Ben, wake up.”

He didn’t move, and Rey felt a twinge of panic rise within her. Holding her breath, she held a hand over his mouth, waiting until she felt warm air on the backs of her fingers before she let herself breathe again. 

Once she was certain that he was at least alive, she looked him over, assessing his body for any sign of new injuries she may have missed while trying not to scream on the bed. He didn’t have any new bloodstains, and the bruises on his skin were all old, some of them yellowing already. Aside from the drug, it appeared that nothing had been done to hurt him. 

It occurred to her that they may have upped the dosage that day, choosing to let him burn rather than beating him or cutting into him. Perhaps they’d grown tired, perhaps they thought that increasing the burning would make him relent. She didn’t understand the point of torturing them to the point of unconsciousness, but maybe that was the only thing that would make them stop. 

“Ben, please,” she begged him, thumb gently stroking his cheek as she leaned over him, “Please.”

She could feel him through the bond, weakened but there. He was firmly alive, he wasn’t going anywhere, but she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to wait for him to wake up. With a sigh, she rested her forehead against his, not caring at what the touch would ordinarily mean. He was out like a light, and if she was lucky, he wouldn’t know a damn thing about it. 

She sent waves of urgency over the bond, hoping that her emotions would alert him into consciousness. She could only hope that her feelings for him didn’t leak in there as well. In this moment, not knowing when he would wake up or if he would wake up, it was getting increasingly difficult to keep those feelings down. “Ben,” she called out again, her fingers reaching up into his hair, stroking it gently as she tried desperately to reach him. 

Yet as worried as she was she never faltered. She stayed by his side, just waiting for him to awaken. After a few minutes, she lifted her head from his, but kept her hands in his hair, brushing it back from his face, and periodically calling out his name. 

It was starting to feel hopeless when an hour went by and he was still out. She wondered if this was how Finn felt that first day they’d been tortured, when he’d told her that Poe wasn’t waking up. In all likelihood, this was exactly it, if not worse. She understood then what it was like to feel completely and utterly useless as the person she— 

That was a word she dared not think. A word that had hung heavy in the air around them since those unspoken feelings first became realized, and hung heavier in the past six days since they’d started the torture sessions. One that fit the actions of the woman who dreamed of nearly kissing him. Who had almost kissed him in reality before he’d backed away, clearly not ready to cross that line yet either. 

She looked down at his sleeping face, and that word pierced the forefront of her mind again. It number the pain of the last hour—the last several days—to virtually nothing. As Ben’s chest rose and fell beneath her, she felt certain of it, and the moment they got out of there, she would tell him. Hopefully without receiving a typical Solo, “I know,” in return. 

Rey chuckled at the thought, then she heard Ben’s voice mumble beneath her, “What’s so funny?”

Her breath left her in a rush, “Ben!” She cried, throwing her arms around him, crushing him against her as sweet relief flooded through the bond. 

Nothing could match the feeling of Ben’s arms wrapping around her a second later as he returned her embrace, sitting up weakly so he could pull her tight against him. She didn’t mind the contact, in fact, she welcomed it, relishing in the feeling of his body against hers. “I didn’t know when you’d wake up,” she said into his ear, “You had me worried. I… I thought…”

Ben chuckled lightly, his deep voice resonating somewhere within her, “I know,” he said, his words reminding her of where her mind had been just minutes earlier, “I’m sorry.”

Rey sighed against him, then she pulled away slightly, “Don’t be, I’m just glad you’re back,” she said with a smile, then she pulled him back to her again, holding him tightly as if she’d never let go. 

They stayed there for a moment in their embrace, Rey found herself almost lost in it, her worries from the past hour almost forgotten until her gaze fell on her bed, and she remembered why she’d needed him to wake up so badly. Slowly, she pulled away, and stared at it. Ben’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion out of the corner of her eye. “Rey, what’s going on?” He asked. 

She turned back to him, “I need to tell you something,” she replied, taking his hand in hers, “Something happened when you were gone. Ben, I felt it, I felt the force. One minute I was in the most pain I’d ever been in, then… I moved the bed halfway across the room.”

Ben’s eyes widened slightly, “Are you sure?”

Rey nodded firmly, “Ben, it moved, I heard it,” she said, sitting back on the ground, “I think we gave up on trying to use the force as an escape plan too early.”

“You want to use the force to escape?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know, Rey, it’s risky.”

“We’d have to make sure we could use it consistently before we tried it, but I think it’s our best option.”

Ben thought for a moment, reaching a hand up to scratch his head, “Let’s try it,” he said, “Give me one more hour to recover, then let’s try it.”

Rey beamed at him, then her face fell as she remembered the other thing she needed to talk to him about, “Ben?” she asked. 

“Hmm?”

She scratched her head, “I don’t know if you would know the answer, but… They didn’t take me today,” she told him, “And when you were tortured…”

“They went straight to the drug,” Ben finished, then when she nodded, he sighed, “Rey, they ran out. They used the last of their supply to torture me, it was double the usual dose.”

“What?”

“The last thing I heard before I passed out was that they’re going to need a couple of days to get a new shipment in. I don't think they were expecting us to hold out this long.”

She couldn’t help the grin that once again rose to her face, “So, we have time, then,” she said, “We have days. Without that… thing… They can’t even try to break us…”

“Your plan might work,” he breathed.

“It’s going to work,” she replied, squeezing his hand as he returned her smile. It was going to work. They were going to get out of there. She didn’t know how long it would take them, but they were going to be free. 

The twelfth day of capture was almost as eventful for Finn and Poe in their cell. Once they were done being tortured for the day, they helped each other to stay awake, looking over the wounds that had been inflicted upon them. Poe winced as Finn pressed the pillowcase into the wounds on his chest, doing his best to staunch the bleeding with the limited resources they had.

“Easy,” Poe said, shaking somewhat as Finn pressed just a little too hard into his stinging cut, one of three he’d received that day. The guards had decided to open up one of his old wounds that morning, one that had just scabbed over. They’d taken their knife and slowly sliced the scab clean off so that the wound bled again. He’d cried out in agony, his knuckles turning white. He wanted to curl in on himself but the restraints they had around him ensured that he couldn’t move. 

“Sorry,” Finn replied, easing his hold on the pillowcase, then he put a hand on Poe’s shoulder as he looked at the wound, “It’s not bleeding as much now.”

Poe scoffed, “That’s good at least,” he replied, “Is it just me or are they getting worse the longer this goes on?”

“It’s definitely getting worse. Sometimes I don’t think I’m going to make it, you know? I think ‘this might be it, this might be the moment I die,’ and I know--logically--that I won’t die, but…”

His head hung heavy on his shoulders as he nodded his agreement. Sometimes it really did feel like they were going to die. Each time they were marched into that torture chamber, Poe worried it would be the last. He feared every day the prospect of never returning from the prison. He never voiced this fear out loud, of course, but it was always in the back of his mind. It always haunted him that there was a solid chance they wouldn’t see another day. 

The commander looked at Finn, the man he’d promised a future to over the past week since they’d first voiced their feelings for each other. Every time he went down that hallway toward the torture chamber he remembered that promise, he wondered if he’d ever get to see it through. 

The guards’ feet stomped loudly down the hallway, and he sighed as he put his shirt back on, having taken it off earlier so Finn could inspect his wounds. With a pained grunt, Poe took the pillowcase out of Finn’s hands, and stalked over to his bed, placing it on the pillow just in time for the guards to come bursting in with their breakfast. 

He and Finn ate in large part in silence as he debated long and hard with himself on whether or not he’d be able to fulfill that promise. In his head he started to rationalize with himself it wouldn’t be so bad if they just gave in… Just once, so he would know what it felt like to kiss him before he died—if he died. 

When the guards took the remnants of their meal away, Poe’s heart was pounding in his chest. He felt blood rush through his ears as he stood up slowly off of his bed, wincing only slightly from the leftover pain of this morning as he walked over to the other side of the room. 

Finn stood up, reaching his arms out to steady him, but Poe pushed them aside, taking Finn’s face in his hands, and kissing him firmly. At first Finn froze in shock, but after a few seconds he melted against him, wrapping his arms around his waist as he pulled Poe closer. 

He smiled into the kiss as one of his hands came up to support the base of Finn’s skull as he discovered just once what this felt like. It felt like everything he’d imagined, his mind finely tuned to everything around him. It felt like his senses were heightened, like he could see, hear, and feel everything. Like he was feeling everything and nothing all at once. 

Poe pulled away slowly, panting as he and Finn began to drift apart, looking between his eyes, asking him without saying a word if that was okay. Finn didn’t need to say anything either for him to know he was more than okay with it. 

“You were saying about… about dying,” Poe said, trying to slow his breathing, “Finn, I needed… I needed to know what that felt like, just once…”

Finn nodded, “I know,” he replied, “I was thinking the same thing.”

Poe laughed, then he went back in, pressing his lips to Finn’s once more, only breaking away from him when he heard Rey’s voice calling out to them from across the hallway, and he chuckled as he pulled away from Finn this time. “Finn? Poe?” she called out gently, not wanting the entire aisle to hear them. 

With a groan, Poe walked up to the window with Finn by his side to find that both Ben and Rey were staring at them through the small window of their cell. “How are you guys holding up?” he asked, leaning against the door, and crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Not great,” Ben muttered in response.

Poe smirked, “Rey told us you decided to be a wise ass yesterday,” he replied, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that joke first.”

“It wasn’t worth it, if you’re wondering.”

“Didn’t think it would be, but it’s probably better me than you.” Poe’s eyes fell on Rey, who was looking at the ground beside Ben. He heard her feet shuffle awkwardly, then he sighed, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take, we need to come up with something soon.”

“We can’t exactly talk about it,” Rey said, looking nervously down the halls, “Our neighbors listening in on our conversations is exactly what doomed us last time.”

“What the hell else do we talk about?” Finn asked beside him.

“The weather was terrible today,” Ben said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, “I ate food. It’s cold here. All interesting things to talk about, surely.”

The four of them shared a laugh, and Rey smacked Ben’s arm as he grinned down at her, and all of Poe’s suspicions about the two of them came flooding back in. If he and Finn had just caved into their feelings for each other, he wondered how long Rey and Ben had before they did the exact same thing. He wondered if Rey was aware of the way he looked at her when she wasn’t looking. 

He didn’t have time to comment on it. The familiar sound of the guards marching down the hallway drifted into his ears, and he watched sympathetically as Ben blanched. Rey’s worried gaze followed him as he walked away from the window, then she turned back, and gave Finn and Poe one last wave before she too disappeared. 

Finn and Poe quickly followed suit, listening tensely as the guards took Ben from the cell, a silence falling over what felt like the entire prison in the minutes after. Though Poe wandered over to Finn’s bed after, he said nothing as he took him into his arms, and they laid back against the mattress staring at the ceiling. 

Another twenty minutes passed before anything else happened, then twenty minutes into the silence, they heard a pained grunt from Rey’s cell, and the harsh scraping of metal against the cement flooring of the prison. Poe sat up bolt right in the bed, listening carefully for another trace of the sound. Finn asked him something, but he didn’t hear it, his ears too tuned into whatever was happening in the cell belonging to Rey and Ben. 

Several minutes went by with nothing happening, not until the guards were once again marching down the hall, returning Ben from his torture a good ten minutes earlier than usual. Poe glanced back at Finn, and mouthed, “What the fuck,” before he returned to his bed, and waited patiently for them to pass. He winced when he heard Ben’s body hit the ground with a dull thud. If even Ben was falling unconscious during the torture sessions, he and Finn were doomed. 

When the guards left, he heard Rey’s voice—albeit, faintly— calling out Ben’s name, begging him to wake up. He looked over at Finn, remembering the day that they’d thrown him in unconscious and Finn had nothing to do but wait for him to wake up. He and Finn looked at each other knowingly, the other man’s eyes saddened by the memory of what had happened to them just under a week earlier.

Poe returned to Finn’s bed, and the two lay there for the next hour, listening to the sounds of the blizzard outside, the wind howling no longer frightening, just white noise. After a while, he closed his eyes, and he began to drift off into sleep, when he heard Rey’s voice once again calling out for them. He groaned as he woke up again, and looked over at Finn to find him firmly asleep beside him. 

He pressed a kiss to the top of Finn’s head, then he walked over to the window to find Rey smiling brightly at him from the other side of the hall. “Rey, what happened, are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, where’s Finn?” she replied, eyes looking at the window space around him in search of her friend. 

Poe shook his head, “He’s asleep,” he said softly, his eyes falling briefly on the still sleeping Finn before he looked back at her, “What’s going on?”

Rey’s grin spread wider on her face, “Poe, you’re not going to believe me, but…”

“But?”

“I think we may have a way out of here.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've already got half of the next chapter written, no telling on when I'll be able to post it (I have a five page paper due tomorrow that I haven't even started (but the good news is that I don't have that class until five thirty so...) and god only knows when the hell I'll start that) but it'll be there. Also, holy shit I've written all of this within three weeks and that's absolutely insane, I've never done that before? All of my other fics took me ages to complete and I'm shook that I did this so fast? It's awesome, guys. ANYWAY, long author's note is long, but I did promise more ted talks, so, thanks for coming to this one.


	12. One with the Force

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Rey we’ve been at this for hours, we need a break.”
> 
> She shook her head, “We can’t, Ben, we don’t have—”
> 
> “Time? Rey, they could return in two seconds, or maybe two days. We don’t know, but what we do know is we won’t get anywhere if we’re this exhausted.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been excited for this one y'all. I've been really excited for this one. I can't say anything else.

Ben and Rey got to work immediately. Once she told Poe and Finn that she had a plan—though she couldn’t tell them what it was, not wanting the wrong ears to catch it— she turned back to him, and they waited the remaining hour Ben said he’d needed to recover. Throughout the remainder of the day the two worked steadily on meditating, trying to reach out and touch the force.

They only took breaks when they needed to use the restroom, then they begrudgingly called for the guards who marched them there and back in silence. They observed their potential exit each time, taking into account the size of the windows and how easy it would be to get out of them. Rey had pointed out to him how they could also dismantle the wall entirely once they had access to the force, and he’d sighed in contentment.

The first day yielded them no luck, and they went to bed somewhat frustrated, but still hopeful. Rey kept herself finely tuned to what little of the force she could feel around them as she held Ben in the dark. She spooned herself tightly around him, feeling their bond humming with energy. Their different emotions swirled around them. Her light force and his dark moved in perfect balance with each other. The force was balancing itself around them slowly, but surely.

It felt closer than ever but at the same time it had never been more out of reach. It frustrated her that they hadn’t been able to reach it.

Beside her, Ben stirred in his sleep, a soft groan leaving him as he shifted the wrong way, and pain filtered in through the bond. She sent waves of calm to him, and he lay still a moment later. At least through it all, they still had whatever Snoke claimed to have sparked between them. Rey winced with regret at the thought of the past three months she’d spent resenting the bond, of the nights she’d tried to find some way to close it permanently.

She’d never been more grateful for her failure. It hurt to feel the pain of being tortured twice, and it was a struggle to hide the feelings she was feeling so strongly for him, but she wouldn’t want the bond gone not now or ever.

Hoping he was still fast asleep, she pressed a kiss to his shoulder, and shut her eyes, falling slowly to sleep minutes later.

The next three days passed by much the same. They woke up, usually still in each other’s arms, got out of bed, and meditated for a good twenty minutes before breakfast.

Once breakfast came, they ate and talked with Finn and Poe about trivial, meaningless things. Rey desperately wished for some way to communicate with them, to let them know how she and Ben were progressing. Not that they were making much progress, things were moving at a snail’s pace—if they were moving at all.

After breakfast they meditated more. They would reach out for the force for hours on end with only a few breaks in between. Nothing happened. For three days straight they didn’t have any luck. The only good news was that they started receiving two meals a day again instead of one. Despite the food’s less than great taste, they found themselves wolfing it down.

By the time their fifteenth day of imprisonment rolled around, the guards still hadn’t come back to torture them, and they wondered how much time they had left before they came back. Even without the constant torture, even as the cuts and bruises on their body began to heal, they were growing weary, and just twenty minutes after dinner, Rey surprised herself by suggesting they turn in early. Ben didn’t even try to protest, he even got up off the floor before she did.

They fell asleep that night with Ben once again in Rey’s arms, both of them too exhausted to even wish each other good night.

Rey’s dreams were full of nightmares. Each one revolved around the guards and their brutal torture. In the first It was her strapped to that table, the drug being injected into her veins as she screamed. It felt as real as the dream she’d had about the throne room nine days earlier, like she was really back there, really being tortured.

In this particular nightmare, she told them everything. She told them who she was, then when they pressed her again, throwing a brutal punch to her face, she told them who Finn and Poe were. After several more punches, kicks, and even a cut to her collar bone, she confessed everything she knew about Ben.

Once the guards in her nightmare knew everything, they pulled her off of the table, and yanked her down the hall forcefully—no, _violently_ — toward her and Ben’s cell, only this time when they opened the door, Finn and Poe were in there, too. She called out to them, saying she was sorry, telling them she couldn’t take it anymore, that she had lost her strength, and they’d finally broken her.

The guards let her finish speaking, then one of them raised his blaster, and set it to kill. She felt like a passenger in her own body as she watched him point it at Finn, and fire, a scream of pure agony leaving her throat as she watched him collapse lifelessly to the ground. When Poe cried out, cursing them and everything they stood for, the guard rounded on him next, firing a shot straight into his skull. The blast struck the center of his forehead, leaving a terrible, gaping hole she could see straight through until he fell to the ground.

Rey was sobbing at this point, screaming at them to stop, and feeling like she wasn’t being heard, though it was more likely that she was being ignored. Rational thought was gone to her in this moment, she could only see the blood of her friends staining the floor, pooling at her knees, at the feet of the guard and the one person she still had left.

She looked up at Ben, blinking tears from her eyes as the guard stared him down, the blaster pointed at him now as she watched horrified. She tried briefly to get out of the guards hold, but it was no use, the blaster fired into Ben’s chest, straight through his heart. He coughed up blood as he fell to the ground, dead before he even made the impact.

Rey was sobbing the whole time, feeling as if she couldn’t breathe while the guard turned on her at last. She stared at him with fire in her gaze as she took in a shaky breath, “Do it,” she told him, a sob leaving her throat before she cried out again, “Do it!”

Without saying a word, the guard aimed the blaster right at her head, then he fired, and Rey’s horrid nightmare finally came to an end.

Rey woke up in a cold sweat gasping for air, her hands grasping at anything she could find, and at the moment, the only thing she could find was Ben as he slept beside her. She sighed with relief against him, realizing he was still warm and alive, and all that she’d just seen had just been what she’d hoped it was—some awful nightmare.

She held him close against her, wishing she could do the same for Finn and Poe. Not being able to see them right now was making her uneasy, and a tear fell from her eyes without her wanting it to as she remembered the sight of their lifeless bodies on the floor that was currently behind her.

It took all she had to push the thought from her mind, thinking instead of the good memories she had with them, of the better dreams she had where they finally got out of there. A while passed before she was able to successfully bring her breathing down, and push the nightmare from her mind as she snuggled up against Ben, and held him close in her arms, falling asleep once again five minutes later.

When Rey woke up from a mercifully nightmareless sleep, it was she who was being held by him. His arms were wrapped tightly around her as he pulled her body flush against his. She didn’t mind the contact, and she welcomed the warmth as she realized it was snowing once again.

On this particular morning, the sky outside their window was a somewhat brighter bluish grey, illuminating their cell in a faint, silvery looking light. It would’ve been beautiful if it were anywhere else, but not here, not in this cell.

Beside her, she heard Ben snore quietly. The sound was delightful in the wake of the nightmare she'd had hours earlier, and caused her to laugh involuntarily, her hand slamming over her mouth a minute later as she hoped that she hadn’t woken him up. But she had no such luck.

The arm Ben had slung around her waist tightened around her, his muscles flexing as he woke up. A soft groan left his lips, and she could feel the vibrations of his voice in her hair as he said, “What's happening?”

She stifled another giggle, taking a moment to collect herself before she answered him, “Nothing yet, but…” she giggled again, audibly this time as she recalled the sound of the snore she’d heard a minute earlier.

Ben’s hand rested over hers, “What?”

“Um… you snored,” she told him, another giggle escaping her as Ben froze beside her in shock.

“I did not,” he said in disbelief.

“You did,” she replied, turning over so she could face him, pausing when she realized how close their faces were in this position. They were mere inches apart. “I… I heard it…”

Ben’s eyes drifted down again at their close proximity, but Rey didn’t acknowledge it, reminding herself of the risks of crossing that line. She exhaled slowly as she watched him, his eyes meeting hers, and staring into them as if he was seeing right into her soul. It was unsettling and wonderful at the same time, and she didn’t know how it could feel that way just because he looked at her.

They stared at each other for a moment, the conversation about Ben’s snore forgotten as the time passed. Eventually, Rey moved away from him, and sat up, stretching her arms as she did so, “We should probably get started, I want us to be ready by the time they get the shipment in.” With that, she threw the sheets aside, and moved to sit on the floor, looking up at him expectantly as she waited for him to join her.

Ben nodded in agreement, sitting up a moment later himself, and joining her on the floor of their cell, putting his hands in hers as they began to meditate, feeling for the force around them. From there, the day progressed normally. They ate breakfast twenty minutes later, and resumed meditating once it was finished, then the day became less normal. 

They’d been meditating for at least three hours, Ben’s hands entwined perfectly with hers as they tapped into the force as best they could, when she felt his frustration through their bond. “Don’t give in, Ben, we can do this.”

He shook his head, “We should be feeling something by now, more than just our bond. Whatever they have, it’s... it’s effective.”

Rey sighed, “I know, I know, but we don’t have all the time in the galaxy, Ben,” she said, the frustration creeping into her voice now as well, “We’re our only hope of getting out, and we can’t do that if we can’t use the force.”

Ben scoffed, “Rey we’ve been at this for hours, we need a break.”

She shook her head, “We can’t, Ben, we don’t have—”

“Time? Rey, they could return in two seconds, or maybe two days. We don’t know, but what we do know is we won’t get anywhere if we’re this exhausted.”

Rey looked as though she were about to protest, then she nodded, and removed her hands from his, standing up slowly, “Fine,” she replied, holding out a hand for him.

He took it gratefully, allowing her to help him up before leading him into what he could now refer to as their bed. She sat down first, then he sat beside her, both of their hands folded in their laps as they stared blankly ahead.

Neither of them spoke for several moments, the tension between them building to a breaking point as the silence in the room deafened them. After a while, they turned to face each other at the same time, but it was Rey who broke the silence first, “I’m sorry,” she told him, “You were right.”

“No, I’m sorry,” he protested, taking one of her hands in his, and lacing their fingers together as had become habit over the past several nights, “I should’ve worked harder.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ben, we’re both beyond exhausted. We needed a break.”

“Oh, so I’m right now?”

She shoved him lightly with her shoulder, “Shut up,” she muttered, but there was a smile on her face when he turned to look at her.

Rey realized too late that they were far too close for their own good, that the line they had so far dared not to cross was no longer between them because they were standing on it. Ben’s face fell from the stupid, Solo grin it had, and his expression sobered as his eyes drifted down to her lips.

Her heart beat faster than ever in her chest as she watched his gaze, knowing they were slowly inching over that line, and not wanting to do a damn thing to stop it. His name fell from her lips, her voice trembling slightly as his eyes drifted back up to meet hers.

They wouldn’t have to speak a word to make what was happening between them real. It was all in their actions. As the space between them grew smaller and smaller, their emotions through the bond were louder and louder, each of them feeling the exact same thing. It was a delightful mixture of anticipation, anxiety, and excitement drifting about in the molecules of air between them, and Rey found herself holding her breath.

Neither of them was sure who started it, but they had halfway closed the distance between them by the time either one noticed that they were moving closer together, as if pulled magnetically. Rey’s cheeks flushed in the dim blue light, her heart racing faster as Ben drew closer and closer, looking at her from beneath hooded eyes.

She was about to close hers, ready to give into the kiss and everything it would mean, but then she heard the footsteps approaching their door, and she pressed a hand against his chest, “Shit,” she whispered, preparing to run over to her side of the room. Ben’s hand reached out and caught her wrist, and she looked at him nervously as the footsteps drew closer and closer.

Pure fear was filtering into the bond from both ends. The guards had said that it would be _days_ before they received a new shipment of the drug, but she'd been hoping that it would be closer to a week. A part of her thought that Ben had been right, they shouldn't have stopped meditating and gotten distracted in indulging whatever was going on between them. 

They waited until the guard’s footsteps completely faded away before they moved, Ben’s eyes finding hers in the dark, a hint of humor behind his irises as a subtle grin grew on his features. She giggled quietly, almost nervously, and found him joining her a moment later, resting his forehead against hers, “First Luke, now this,” he muttered, and she smiled at the memory of their time by the fire, wishing she could feel its warmth again.

She reached up her hand, and ran her thumb over the scar she’d gave him, “There’s no one there now.” She surprised herself with her own bravery. Over the past few days she’d been afraid of these feelings, of letting them out into the open, yet here she was giving him the open invitation to make them so. So much had already changed in the last several days, but this was the most unexpected of them all for her.

“You’re right,” he replied, brushing a piece of her hair behind her ear. His eyes returned to her lips again, the sight of it sending the right kind of chill down her spine as anticipation filled the air. Ben leaned in first this time, cupping her jaw with one hand as he slowly closed the space between them.

There was one last, final pause, their lips barely a pin’s head apart as they sat frozen, the force humming softly around them before Ben at long last brought his lips to hers, and they crossed over the line together.

Rey quickly responded to the kiss, bringing her free hand up to wrap around the base of his skull, burying her fingers in his hair as he pulled her to him. The force hummed loudly around them, singing with balance as she and Ben, light and dark, finally came together. She felt something akin to bolts of electricity running up and down her spine, and through their bond she could sense Ben was feeling much the same as they took that first step into uncharted territory. Dipping their toes into an enormous, metaphorical ocean as their warm lips came together.

His own free hand came around, and buried itself in her hair, gripping it firmly but gently as he held her close like he’d never get to hold her again. She didn’t protest, smiling slightly into their kiss as their lips parted and came together again in a rhythm more beautiful than any music she’d ever heard.

Ben kissed her until she needed air, pulling away from him gently, but quickly as she gasped for breath. He quickly did the same, panting hard as they looked into each other’s eyes, neither of them sure what to say, only that whatever had just happened was the first time either had truly felt peace. Around them, the force continued to buzz, the sound humming in Rey’s ears like the background noise of engines on a ship. It was alighted with energy, and it felt alive as it surrounded them. They’d meditated for hours and never felt this close to it. It was just a hair’s breadth away now.

“I…I can feel it,” she said between heaves of her chest, keeping her hands buried in Ben’s hair as she kept him at a close distance.

Ben nodded, “I feel it, too.”

“I still can’t touch it, though.”

He shrugged this time, a smirk growing on his face that reminded her so much of Han, “Maybe we should try again.”

A soft smile grew on Rey’s features as she leaned in, and kissed him again, earning a soft moan from him as her fingers tangled themselves in his hair. Around them, the force was singing, the feeling of every brush of his lips against hers heightened by the bond, by his emotions colliding with hers somewhere in the connected space between them. She’d felt him at just about every range of the emotional spectrum, but she’d never felt him this positively ecstatic. It was second handedly making her feel a sort of euphoria she’d never experienced before, and instantly hoped she’d never stop feeling.

She’d kissed and been kissed before, but it had never felt like this. She hadn’t known it _could_ feel like this. Then again, she’d never felt the way she did about Ben with any of them.

As the minutes passed, Rey wondered why the hell she’d let herself wait so long, why she’d decided they needed to hide behind that line they’d just crossed. This was worth any second of pain she would suffer for it if they got caught. The way he was kissing her would’ve had her weak in the knees if she’d been standing. Damn the guards and the prison to whatever hell awaited them, this was worth it.

Rey deepened the kiss as she pulled at the fabric of Ben’s shirt, and pulled him down onto the bed with her, his torso covering hers slightly as they continued kissing passionately, keeping the sounds they made as silent as they were capable of, a task which proved difficult with Poe and his dirty mind a mere ten feet away at all times—the thought of the jokes Poe would make if he caught them nearly made her shudder. But somehow they managed, even though Ben’s hands on her waist, in her hair made the task increasingly difficult. The sensation of his lips against hers nearly driving her insane.

It felt like hours before they came apart again, Rey staring up at Ben with their foreheads pressed together, her heart racing faster than she thought was healthy. Not a word was spoken as they held a silent conversation with their eyes.

Rey gave him a mischievous grin as she pulled him back down for another kiss, eliciting a surprised, and slightly too loud moan from him.

“Are you guys okay?” Poe’s voice called out from across the hall.

Rey and Ben stopped kissing immediately and froze, neither one knowing how to react to the sudden—but not entirely unexpected—interruption. After a moment too long, Rey croaked out a, “We’re fine!”

They could hear him snickering to himself from across the hall, “Yeah, I bet you are,” he said, not even bothering to _try_ to hide the suggestive tone in his voice.

“We’re fine, Poe,” she repeated, “We’re just meditating.”

Poe muttered something else sounding vaguely like "Just meditating, my ass," but she didn’t hear it as his voice faded away, talking to Finn now in their cell.

Ben was laughing beside her, his hair falling into his face as he looked down at her, and she too broke out into a grin. She shushed him hurriedly, laughing against his lips as they came together again and again. She was certain she could never tire of this, kissing him could never get old. Especially not when their emotions swirled through the bond, enhancing every moment of the kiss, making each brush of their lips feel magnified by a thousand.

Rey pulled away for breath, panting as heavily as he was as she moved his hair out of his face, wanting to see him in the aftermath of their wonderfully explosive kiss. Something about seeing Ben’s kiss swollen lips sent waves of heat rushing through her, his still hooded eyes stared down at her in wonder and that same emotion she’d first conjured to life in her mind the day prior.

It was then she realized he was as far gone as she was, there was no turning back for either of them now. They were hopeless, and Rey didn’t mind one bit.

“We should’ve done that… ages ago…” Rey panted, running her thumb over Ben’s bottom lip, enjoying the redness she’d created there.

Ben smirked at her, pressing another brief kiss to her lips before he pulled away and looked her up and down, likely doing the same thing she was. “How long have you been wanting to do that?”

She thought for a moment, “I don’t know, I didn’t know what I felt for a while,” she admitted, “At first I thought it was loathing, that I hated you. But I never did. I never hated you. I hated the things you did. I hated the way you did them. But I never hated _you._ What about you? How long have you been wanting to do that?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, somewhat sheepishly, “I thought about it the first time we touched hands. And when Luke interrupted... all I could think about was what would’ve happened if he hadn’t.”

She nodded, “Me too.”

“I thought about it again after we fought the guards, when you threw my grandfather’s saber to me and the last guard fell? I... I wanted to do it then, but then you got distracted, and then I was an ass.”

Rey turned her head, facing him slightly, and pressing another lingering kiss to his lips. “I think that’s why I turned away, I knew exactly what you wanted, and that… that was somehow more terrifying than anything else.”

Ben shifted so he was lying beside her, one of his hands still caressing her cheek, pulling tendrils of her hair away from her face so he could look at her, “I was scared, too,” he said, “I’m sorry.”

She rested a hand on his chest, feeling his heart race beneath her palm, and she frowned, “Ben, what the hell are we going to do?” She asked softly, “If they catch us…”

Ben kissed her again before she could finish her sentence, his kiss silencing her worries as he snaked an arm around her waist, and pulled her against him. She hummed into the kiss, the hand she still had in his hair stroking it softly as she deepened it, their third—maybe fourth? She’d already lost count—kiss having the same impact on her as their first. She wondered briefly if it would always feel like this.

Begrudgingly, she pulled herself away, knowing they needed to have the conversation she’d just tried to start, even though she desperately didn’t want to. Ben groaned as she pulled away from him, and she ran her hand through his hair again as she sighed, “We’ve both been in denial about this for weeks,” she said, breathing deeply as she met his eyes, “I didn’t want to say anything because you were still the supreme leader—”

“I technically still am, I haven’t resigned yet.”

She smacked his arm lightly, “Shut up, you know what I meant,” she said, trying not to grin, but she couldn’t help it when she saw the corners of his mouth twitch, “You were the supreme leader, and on top of that, we’re trapped here. Until we get out…”

Ben sobered up immediately from his joking tone, “We need to be careful.”

“I don’t think we should do anything at all,” she replied, looking down to his chest, “Not until we get out, then… I don’t know…”

“You felt the same thing I just felt, Rey. Stopping it might be a move in the wrong direction.”

She let out a shuddering breath, “You’re probably right,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “But Ben, if we get caught…”

“We won’t. We can always hear the guards coming from a mile away. Rey, we can do this.”

“What is this, though?”

Ben said nothing, he simply rolled into his back, and pulled her on top of him with the arm he’d slung around her waist. She gasped softly, but managed to not make any louder noises that would alert the guards—or Poe—to the goings on in their cell. She shook her head at him, but she laughed as her hair fell into her face, and he once again brushed it away, “I don’t know what it is,” he said honestly, “I’ve never had anything… not like this… but if you’ll let me, I’d like to find out.”

She gave him a nod, smiling down at him as she kissed him again, and once again the prison, the torture, the scars, the bloodstained clothes, and the wretched planet itself melted away, and it was only her and Ben in the universe. It was only them and the force, and they were unstoppable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote this so many times it's not even funny, but BOOM. It's there, after 52k it was time. It was god damn time. If y'all were missing the stormpilot from this chapter, don't worry, the next one's pretty much all theirs. But I needed this to happen I've been waiting to write this for weeks. Anyway, till next time y'all. (take a shot for every time I say y'all in the author's notes, you'll get alcohol poisoning)


	13. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe scoffed, “Just meditating my ass,” he said, then he turned back to Finn, and sat down on the bed beside him, “Did we place a bet on when that would happen? Because we should have.”
> 
> Peals of laughter echoed from the other cell, both Ben and Rey’s voices loud and clear as they laughed wildly for several seconds on end, then the prison was once again quiet. Finn shook his head, “I never would’ve thought going into this that those two would…” he gestured vaguely. 
> 
> Poe smirked in return, and reached up to caress Finn’s cheek, “Let’s be fair, though, they’re not the only ones,” he said, then he pressed a gentle kiss to Finn’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a minute, I got insanely busy.

Day fifteen of imprisonment yielded nothing too eventful for Finn and Poe, and neither had the past three days. Once Rey revealed to them that she had an idea, they could only work on finding them a new escape route. 

Finn would claim to the guard that he had bladder problems and go to the restroom as often as he could without rousing suspicion. He always tested the size of the windows, making sure that they’d be able to fit, that they weren’t too small for all of them. 

The mental image he’d conjured in his head of Kylo—Ben—shimmying his way out of a small window brought a smile to his face on one of his accompanied walks to the restrooms on day thirteen, and one of the guards had asked him what was so funny. He’d quickly dropped his smile after that. 

When he was led into the restroom that time, he set to work on examining the windows, pressing a palm against one to discover that it budged a good inch when he moved it. Cold air flooded through the window, and even a few raindrops from the seemingly never ending storm outside. He let out a shaky breath, then he pressed the window a bit more, noticing it creaked loudly as he did so. The sound had him wincing, but he pressed on, opening it until he could stick his head out and gaze out at the planet around him. 

There was nothing to gaze at but the sheer drop that Ben had suspected might be there just about two weeks prior. The lights outside the prison illuminated the cliff-side that the prison rested on. There was a six inch ledge about ten feet down, then there was nothing as far as Finn could see. The sight of it sent his heart into his stomach. There was no way they’d survive a fall like that. They were going to have to scale the building. 

Finn looked left and right, noticing that the prison’s exterior was illuminated dimly by these lights which showed the thin--potentially perfect footholds--ledges running laterally along the prison about every five feet up from the bottom, all the way up the prison’s dome-shaped body. The ledges looked to be made of a firm steel that would hopefully support their weight, but were no more than two inches in their width. They would have to be extraordinarily careful when they decided to finally make this escape.

Holding his breath, Finn slowly backed out of the window, and stepped down, praying that the guards hadn’t heard him throughout the entire process. He then reached up, and closed the window agonizingly slowly, nearly using up the time he had left in the bathroom. The window had been closed for a mere five seconds when the guards burst in and declared time’s up.

After three days, Finn had memorized just about every possible route from their cells to the restrooms. Whenever they did decide to finally make their escape, they were set. All that they were waiting on now was to find out Ben and Rey’s plan, which they claimed to constantly be working on, but after another eavesdropping incident, Finn wasn’t so sure. 

He and Poe had been innocently discussing their escape route when it happened. Poe had proposed that they each take one force user—he would take Ben and Finn could take Rey—and lead them on one of the four paths to the restrooms they knew they could take. That way if one group got caught, the other could press on and get to the ships, fleeing out to the stars before the guards noticed they were missing. 

It seemed like a solid plan, but Finn didn’t have time to think on it. In that moment Poe became distracted by something he either hadn’t seen or hadn’t heard, and he was up by the bars on their door in a second. “Poe, what’s going on?” 

He was quickly shushed as Poe pressed his ear up against the bars, straining to hear something Finn apparently hadn’t. An impish grin rose to his face, “Finally,” he said, then he looked at Finn, and lowered his voice, “I was right.”

Finn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What do you mean, you were right?”

Poe ignored him, then a moment later, Finn heard what he was talking about. A loud, but short moan echoed through their cells, and he covered his mouth to hide the gasp of shock. It appeared his initial prediction about Rey and Ben’s bond through the force had turned out to be correct. That sound was unmistakably not caused by the meditation they’d been claiming to be doing. 

His commander was laughing openly now, “Are you guys okay?” He asked, then the noises from the other cell stopped. 

A good minute passed before they received any reply, which was given to them in the form of a croaked, breathy, “We’re fine,” from Rey, who sounded as if she’d been engaged in intense combat. Well, if Finn knew Poe, he knew he’d suggest she’d certainly been involved in some sort of intense combat. 

Poe snickered to himself, and peered through the cell window, craning his neck to see if he could see anything, “Yeah, I bet you are,” he teased. 

The response came much more quickly this time, and yet again it came from Rey, “We’re fine, Poe, we’re just meditating.”

Poe scoffed, “Just meditating my ass,” he said, then he turned back to Finn, and sat down on the bed beside him, “Did we place a bet on when that would happen? Because we should have.”

Peals of laughter echoed from the other cell, both Ben and Rey’s voices loud and clear as they laughed wildly for several seconds on end, then the prison was once again quiet. Finn shook his head, “I never would’ve thought going into this that those two would…” he gestured vaguely. 

Poe smirked in return, and reached up to caress Finn’s cheek, “Let’s be fair, though, they’re not the only ones,” he said, then he pressed a gentle kiss to Finn’s lips. 

Finn hummed his agreement into the kiss, one of his hands burying itself in Poe’s hair as he returned it. The kiss let him lose himself for a moment, let him forget that he was trapped in this miserable hell hole. As Poe pressed him back into the bed, lying gently on top of him, the walls of the prison completely melted away. 

For all Finn knew, they were back on the resistance base in their own bunks. They were free to be together in any sense that they wanted to be. They were happy. 

But unfortunately that wasn’t true. They were trapped here with only each other to pass the time. Not that Finn particularly minded having Poe in the cell with him, he certainly made the experience more bearable, but he certainly longed for the time they’d spend free of the prison. 

It was on that fifteenth day that they were finally served two meals a day instead of one again like everyone else. All four of them were suspicious of it, but no one complained. After nine days of being virtually starved, they were starting to resemble skeletons more so than the fighters they all were. 

This was particularly noticeable when on the sixteenth day they were allowed the mercy of another shower after breakfast, and each of them got a good look at themselves. 

Finn hadn’t thought the lack of food would have as much of an impact on him as it did. It wasn’t until he was standing under the shower head letting the lukewarm water wash over him that he felt the impact of what their time in the prison had done to him. For the first time in his life, his ribs were sticking out somewhat prominently, and he felt weakened though he’d been doing nothing but resting for days. 

Once the shower was over, Finn was marched back to the cell feeling significantly more depressed than he’d been when he was walked in. Poe gave him a sad smile as they traded the two of them out, and Finn was left alone. 

He laid down on his and Poe’s bed running his fingers over his newly exposed ribs, and longing for his freedom. For the first time, Finn thought he might just lie there and sob. Tears did indeed spring to his eyes, but he refused to let them fall, wiping them away, and holding on to the pillow as he waited for Poe to return. 

When Poe did return, they didn’t have time for a reunion. The guards had decided to let them back outside again for the first time in ages. They hadn’t been outside in more than a week, Finn realized, and any sort of outdoors time—even the prison’s yard—sounded inviting at this point. 

Poe was given a second to gather his itchy blanket, then the guards cuffed them and marched them out of their cell. When Finn looked back, he was relieved to find that Rey and Ben were being marched closely behind them. A small smile appeared at the corners of Finn’s mouth. For the first time in nine days they’d be able to properly talk. They’d get to finally work on their escape plan. 

Rey winked at him as they walked, and he winked back before turning away, and looking at Poe almost mischievously. His commander gave him a knowing nod, one that they all hoped wasn’t seen by the guards. None of the guards bothered them, and Finn felt a small weight lift from his chest 

When at long last they were allowed into the outside yard, the weather was slightly warmer than it had been the last time they’d been there. Though the ground was still covered with a layer of snow, it was misting outside, the little water droplets visible in dim, silver light from a rising sun behind a cloudy sky. Still it was cold enough that Finn shivered when his body met the cold air, and when they were finally outside, he waited until they’d reached the far end of the yard before he leaned against Poe for warmth, and they waited for Ben and Rey to join them. 

The other two were walking about twenty feet behind them, engaged in a quiet conversation with their eyes darting between Finn and Poe and each other. Finn would bet money they were debating telling them what had gone down in their cell yesterday, but little did they know that he and Poe had beaten them to it. 

Rey and Ben ended their conversation as they approached them with soft, awkward smiles on their faces as they greeted Finn and Poe. “Looks like we’re back,” Finn said. 

“Looks like,” Ben replied, looking around them nervously. Finn followed his gaze, noting that he was looking at the positioning of the guards, the direction of their eyes. 

Each guard was facing somewhat vaguely in their direction, and though most of their eyes pointed away from their group of four, none of them were actually looking at their targets. They were being watched, Finn quickly realized. If they couldn’t torture them, they would monitor them, see if they’d slip up and reveal anything they hadn’t thus far revealed during their torture. 

They needed to be extremely careful with how they handled this. 

“How many eyes are on us, do you think?” Poe asked beside him, picking up very quickly on Ben’s intuition. 

“We can’t all look at once,” Ben said, “Do it out of the corner of your eye, just like they are.”

The other three were quick to obey, each of them scanning for the guards out of the corners of their eyes, keeping a silence between them as they did so. After a moment, Rey began to laugh, “I count six pairs of eyes on us at least,” she told them, “Laugh. If we look like we’re joking they’re less likely to think we’re plotting something. And we absolutely can’t get caught this time.”

The others all laughed, “Agreed,” Finn replied, then he crossed his arms, but kept a smile on his face, “So what’s your plan?”

Rey and Ben looked at each other, then they nodded, and she began to explain, “We’re going to use the force,” she said, lowering her voice as much as she could without it becoming a whisper. 

Finn’s eyebrows skyrocketed, “How?” 

Ben stepped in, “We’ve been… meditating. Trying to reach out to it, and we’re almost there. We almost reached it yesterday. We’re close. We’ll be there within the next couple of days.”

Poe was positively beaming at them now, but his smile quickly turned into a knowing smirk, “So what did you do exactly to get…  _ close? _ ”

Finn smacked him lightly on the arm—a difficult task with cuffed hands, but he managed—and shook his head at him as a blush rose to both Ben and Rey’s cheeks. The two side eyed each other somewhat sheepishly, and Ben shuffled his feet awkwardly in the snow on the ground. 

Rey scratched her head, and cleared her throat, “Meditation, like Ben said,” she explained, laughing lightly, “We discovered it was possible on that last day they tortured us. I was in so much pain that day that I lashed out, and somehow I used the force to pull my bed halfway across the room.”

“ _ That’s  _ what that noise was,” Finn said, but Poe wasn’t as easily distracted. 

“And what was the other weird noise we heard?” he asked, “See, it sounded like you were…” he lowered his voice, “Having a good time yesterday.”

This time it was Rey who smacked him, “Get your mind out of the gutter, Poe, we weren’t…” she gestured vaguely in a manner that just had Poe laughing harder, “Doing that, we were…” Poe stared at her with those knowing eyes, almost willing the secret out of her with his mind. 

“We kissed,” Ben finished for her, then when Poe leaned toward him expectantly, he sighed, “A lot.”

Poe chuckled, satisfied, then he crossed his arms, “Was it good?”

“Poe,” Finn protested, then he turned to Ben and Rey, watching them shuffle around awkwardly, stealing glances at each other like they were standing across the room instead of right next to one another, “Anyway, I think we need to talk about what Poe and I came up with.”

“Right!” Rey cried enthusiastically, then she quickly lowered her volume, “What’s your plan?”

“We’ve been investigating the bathroom windows again, and like Ben said, they’re easy to open,” Poe began, then he threw in a fake laugh as if he were telling a joke, “They’re also just big enough for us to crawl out of.”

Finn nodded in agreement, then he laughed in response, “But we were right. There’s a sheer drop on the other side,” he told them, “Kylo--Ben-- was right, we’re going to have to scale the wall along the outside of the prison to get back to that hangar.”

Rey and Ben’s faces fell as they considered this, and vaguely Finn wondered if either of them were afraid of heights despite being experienced pilots. 

“This is going to be more dangerous than we think it is, isn’t it?” Rey asked softly, and Finn watched as she leaned toward Ben. Midway through, she seemed to remember the guards, her eyes darting rapidly from left to right as she took a step away from him instead, and brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 

“It’s going to be ridiculously dangerous,” Poe replied, his expression sobering completely. There was no trace of the joking, teasing man from a minute ago who prodded the details of Ben and Rey’s kiss from their lips, “And we might die, but the moment you two think you’re ready, I want you to signal us.”

“How?” Ben asked, “We can’t do anything too conspicuous. If they send the guards in full force before we’ve had a chance to even get out of our cells…”

Rey nodded, “He’s right, we need to come up with something no one else would catch on to.”

“We talk all the time, don’t we?” Finn asked, “Between the cells? We just need to come up with a subtle, verbal cue.”

“It’ll have to wait a minute, there’s a guard coming this way,” Ben replied, gesturing with his eyes to Finn’s left, where there was indeed a guard approaching them with his hand a little too close to his holstered blaster. 

The four tensed, then turned to face the guard nervously, though they tried not to show it. The guard stopped once he realized they were all looking at him, peering at them through his mask with his head cocked to the side, “What’s going on here?”

“We were just talking,” Finn said, “We used to be in the same cell, we were just… catching up.” He looked to the others to validate his story, relieved when they responded with nods. 

“Just catching up? Didn’t look like it.”

“What’s it supposed to look like?” Poe quipped, then when the guard remained silent, he scoffed, “No, really, I’m curious. What does it look like? You put us through all this  _ shit _ , then you’re mad when we decide to talk after?”

“ _ Poe, _ ” Finn hissed under his breath, saying his name warningly as he stared at him. 

Poe shook his head, and stepped closer to the guard, “No, I can say whatever I want to him right now,” he said, “He can’t use that blaster. They don’t have the means to torture us, and our information’s too valuable to end our lives. They won’t kill us without getting it. He can’t do  _ anything _ , unless I tell him everything they want to know.”

The guard looked at him for a moment, then he laughed cruelly, wickedly even, “You’ve got all that bravado now, I wonder if you’ll have it come the day after tomorrow.”

“What’s so important about the day after tomorrow?” Rey asked, reaching a hand out for Poe, and pulling him back from his close quarters with the guard. Finn quickly followed suit, and they pulled him back until the commander was standing between them seething quietly. 

“That’s when the shipment comes in,” the guard said, and though they couldn’t see his face, they could tell it had a morbid sneer on it, “And this one’s far more potent than the last. You can tell us what you know at any time you wish to spare yourselves this fate, all you have to do is shout.” With that, the guard turned, and left to return to the others, who were all openly staring at them now. A tense moment passed as the four held their gaze, a mixture of rage and fear coursing through their veins. 

Finn felt his heart drop in his chest. They had two days. Two days to get this right before they were once again at risk of revealing everything they knew, and… and… he didn’t want to think about it. He glanced over at Poe, wanting to hold his hand now more than ever, but not wanting to give them anything to go off of when they resumed their dreadful work the day after next. 

Poe looked at him with sad eyes, ones that were filled with regret and sorrow, then he quickly sobered himself, “We need to think fast,” he said, “We need to be out of here as quickly as we can. We’ll work all day and all night tomorrow if we have to. Well, you two will.” He gestured to Rey and Ben, “Finn and I on the other hand…”

Rey looked between Finn and Poe, and this time it was her with the knowing glance, “You’ll be having a good time, I take it?” she asked, teasing him with his earlier words. 

This time it was Poe who turned beet red. Finn couldn’t be bothered with blushing, he was laughing too hard, even Ben was laughing like an idiot as Rey's words sank in. He and Rey exchanged a stupid grin, but the exchange was cut short by the guards announcing that it was time for them to retreat indoors. Finn and Poe looked at Ben and Rey, and without having to say a word, each of them knew what the others were thinking. 

When they were back in the cell ten minutes later, Finn waited patiently until the guards fully disappeared, then he crossed the room, and took Poe’s face in his hands, kissing him before he could say anything. Luckily, it seemed that Poe wanted the exact same thing as he pulled Finn down onto the bed with him so they sat beside one another as Finn wrapped his arms around Poe’s shoulders, and kissed him until he needed air. 

“Fuck,” Poe breathed as they broke away, his hands pressed against Finn’s chest as he met his eyes, “We’ve only got two days… Finn, I don’t want to break, but if they go back… And they do worse than they did before… I’m going to break, Finn. It’s going to happen. I’m going to get us all—”

Finn shut him up with another kiss, then after a few seconds he pulled away, “No,” he said simply, then he took in a deep breath, “It’s bad, Poe, I know it’s bad, but we’re going to get out of here.”

  
“We probably would’ve stood a better chance if I hadn’t egged that guard on.”

“Poe, they’re going to come after us no matter what,” Finn protested, “They’ve been waiting for days to see what we’ll do. To see if they can make us break, but we won’t let them. Even if we don’t escape in time, we’re tougher than this. We’ve seen worse.”

“Have we?” Poe asked, his voice falling serious, “I don’t know, Finn, what they’re doing… We’ve been here for two weeks now and I’m sure you’ve noticed the impact it’s had. We’re miserable, we smell like shit even when we shower, we get one meal a day and we look like it. We don’t know whether we’ll live to see another day, or if we’ll live to see the galaxy again.”

“Poe, we’re going to make it. We just need to wait for Ben and Rey-”

“Finn, it’s risky, it’s so, stupidly risky,” Poe replied, “All I can think is that these may be our last days, and… and I don’t want to waste them.”

“It’s always been risky, hasn’t it?” Finn asked, “It was risky when we broke free from the first order the day we met. It’s been risky every day we worked for the resistance. It was risky when we went out on the mission that got us here in the first place.”

Poe was frozen for a minute, then his shoulders relaxed, “You’re right.”

“Damn right, I am,” Finn said, taking Poe’s face in his hands, “Listen, in two days, none of this is going to matter. You’re going to be back in some X-wing, or some other ship—whatever we can get our hands on—and you’re going to go back to being a badass pilot who blows stuff up.”

Poe laughed at that, his smile seeming to brighten the room around them. “You know me, I love blowing stuff up,” he said, then he sighed, “I’m sorry, Finn. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t be losing hope like this.”

Finn smiled softly, “It’s like you said, with so much on the line, there’s no way we’re not getting out of here.”

“Damn right,” Poe replied, repeating Finn’s earlier words as he wrapped his arms around Finn’s neck, and pulled him in for a kiss. Feeling like he’d successfully restored Poe’s faith in their eventual escape, Finn returned the kiss, burying his hands in their favorite place— Poe’s hair as he deepened the kiss. 

He pulled away after a minute, and locked eyes with Poe, “I promise you on my life we’re getting out of here. All four of us. You understand me?”

Poe nodded, “We’re getting out of here,” he replied, then he pulled Finn back in for another kiss, with a smile on his face.    
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've also got the next chapter mostly written as well, so stay tuned because... I might post it today, and I think I said around chapter eight or so that I had a very relevant story that pertains to it that I'll put in the author's notes at the end.


	14. The Last Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We should, but we may need to take a break, we can’t afford to tire ourselves out before we escape.”
> 
> Another smirk was thrown her way, “We’ve had this conversation before,” he said softly, caressing her cheek with his right hand, “Only the roles were reversed.”
> 
> “But you’re not arguing with me,” she said, her eyes meeting his.
> 
> “Because you’re right,” Ben replied, “We should probably rest some before we try again. We’ve got a little bit of time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so as you've probably noticed, the rating went up, and this chapter is monstrously large. Nothing super explicit happens in this chapter, but it was enough that I think the rating change is necessary. It's not pure smut, though, I'm not doing that in this story. As for others... We'll see. The size of this chapter is also the reason why I'm going to put in a deleted scenes bit later because there's like three deleted scenes from this chapter alone, but it just felt weird to cut out anymore, and there wasn't anywhere better to cut it. So I'm screaming as I post this but here we fucking go.

 

The moment Ben and Rey were left alone in their cell, Rey threw her arms around him, pulling him close against her. Ben didn’t hesitate to return the embrace, letting Rey lean into him as she thought through what they’d just been told.

They had two days. Two measly little days before everything fell apart again. Two days to get back in touch with the force despite not having made much progress over the past several days.

Rey broke away from the embrace slightly, looking up into Ben’s eyes as the weight of what was going to happen to them if they were going to fail sank in. She could feel fear radiating from both of them, humming in the space between them through their bond. “Ben, I…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, he cut her off by cupping her jaw in one of his hands, and bringing his lips to hers. She didn’t have it in herself to protest, wrapping her arms around his waist as she pulled him even tighter against her, finding that she was bending back slightly to maintain her balance as they kissed. One of her hands came up to his hair, noticing almost for the first time that it was slightly longer than it had been when they first came to the prison as she raked her fingers through it.

Sorrow filled her as she remembered all that had happened to them in the prison. From the first day when she’d been angry to wake up next to him, to that very morning when she’d woken him up with a kiss and he’d pulled her on top of him telling her he wished he could always wake up like that. Everything in between was a mixture of the terrible and the delightful.

The terrible had been the torture, the burning pain of the drug, the slicing of the knives into their bodies, the blows struck, the starvation, and the fact that they were in the prison to begin with. The trauma they had endured was comparable to that of any battle, but somehow…

The delightful had been all the mornings she’d woken up beside Ben, waking up with him in her arms that first morning had sent her heart racing, though she’d never told him. At the time, she was still angry with him for all he’d done, and he was still her enemy. She couldn’t tell him then, but she was telling him now with the way she kissed him back, slowly pressing him back until his legs came in contact with their bed.

Their kiss broke briefly as Ben sat down on the bed, looking up at her expectantly before she sat down, straddling his lap as she pressed him against the wall, and kissed him again. Ben moaned softly as she tugged lightly at his hair again, and she smiled against his lips before she began to trail kisses down his jaw, stopping midway down his neck. She then returned to his lips, and he took charge of the kiss, pulling her flush against him. They were so close that she could feel every part of his body against hers, the hard planes of his chest pressed against her nearly had her weak in the knees as she kissed him deeply.

The kiss was easily his best, and she never wanted it to end, but they had a deadline now. They needed to get back to work. She slowly pulled away, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she retreated, then looked down at his wanting eyes, and smiled softly, “We can’t… we can’t... do this forever,” she said, panting out the words as she came down from the high he’d given her, “We... have... two days to get this right..”

Ben breathed heavily against her, but he nodded in agreement. He gave her one last brief kiss before she stood up off of him, and offered him her hand.

She felt that emotion she had yet to name rushing through their bond as he took it, and they stepped over to the spot on the floor that they’d designated their meditating spot. They looked at each other for a moment, and sat down before they joined both of their hands, and began to meditate once more.

They meditated for a good several hours, feeling for the force around them. It was still closer than ever, but yet so far away. It was a hair’s breadth and a mile at the same time. It felt like they were almost dancing around it, their palms forbidden to touch but forever lingering around each other as they engaged in an old timey waltz.

Their bond hummed between them as they drew closer and closer to the force, the humming was quiet at first, but it progressively got louder until it was the only thing flooding their ears. The prison’s various noises were blocked out completely. If anyone were to come in their cell, it was likely they wouldn’t notice until someone laid a hand on them.

They only took a break when dinner was handed out to them, talking over the progress they made as they ate, though they did so in hushed voices, not wanting to risk their neighbors hearing them again. Rey recalled vividly what had happened the last time they did so, and shuddered at the thought as Ben talked on about what he’d felt over the last several hours.

“We’re close, Rey, I can feel it,” he said, “We’re going to be there by tomorrow.” He paused, grinning broadly at her, “I think we might make it.”

“I think we might make it, too,” she replied, thinking about how just in the last day alone they’d made so much progress. It felt like ever since they’d finally stopped denying what they felt for each other—ever since that kiss— they’d been skyrocketing towards their freedom.

That first kiss stuck in her mind suddenly, and as she thought over the way that the force had hummed around them then, and in every kiss after, she realized that perhaps the two were correlated. Perhaps their bond, their emotions, perhaps those were the key.

“What are you thinking about?” Ben asked, peering at her inquisitively as if he were trying to read her thoughts. She was still grateful that he couldn’t. She didn’t want _anyone_ in her mind like that.

Rey scratched her head awkwardly, her uncertainty no doubt filtering into the bond. Ben raised a confused eyebrow, and she let out the breath she was holding, “I just noticed… We only started making progress when we were feeling emotions at their most intense. I was feeling intense agony when I moved the bed, and we only started getting close when we…”

Ben  quirked a curious eyebrow, “When we kissed, Rey?” he asked, finding some sort of amusement in her inability to say it.

She nodded, then a moment of silence passed as her cheeks turned red, but she ignored it as another thought popped into her head. “I’m curious,” she said suddenly, “You were training to be a Jedi, yet…”

“What?”

“The way you kiss,” she breathed, recalling with vivid detail the way his lips felt against hers, the way their bond sang every time they came together, “You… You have experience.”

Ben blushed, his cheeks turning a vivid red as embarrassment flooded through the bond, “No, not much,” he admitted, “The only things I’ve ever done…” There was a wistful look in his eyes as a memory flashed behind them, “When I was seventeen I was living with Luke, and one night he left… and we were bored.”

He smiled at the memory, “One of the other boys there was my age, and he’d managed to get a bottle of wine off of a vendor in Takodana before he came. He was new, and trying to make a good impression.

“So we drank the bottle of wine, and feeling confident, the boy introduced us to this game where we all sat in a circle and—”

“Spin the bottle?” Rey asked, “You had your first kiss playing spin the bottle?”

Ben nodded sheepishly, “And a few times after that,” he admitted, “We played the game periodically, whenever Luke would leave until…” An old, but raw pain filtered into the bond, and Rey reached out a hand to comfort him, which he graciously accepted, sliding his thumb over hers as she sent waves of love over the bond, naming the word for the first time in her own mind.

“I know, you don’t have to say it,” she said quietly, “We can talk about something else.”

He smirked at this, “Why don’t we talk about you?” he asked, those damn Solo eyes seeing right into her, almost as if he already knew her experience before he’d even asked her about it, “You kiss like you’ve done it a few times, too.”

Rey laughed openly, the sound echoing through the cell walls before she silenced it, not wanting to make too loud of a noise, “Yes,” she said, lowering her voice, “I’ve kissed before… I’ve… Done things with people.” Her voice trailed off, and instantly Ben picked up on what she was leaving out.

This time it was Ben who clutched his metaphorical pearls, though he did so in a more sarcastic manner compared to the serious one Finn had when he’d initially thought he and Rey were having sex. “ _Rey,_ ” he breathed in a mockingly scandalized tone.

She giggled again, “Shut up, it was a couple of one night stands back on Jakku, it wasn’t serious,” she explained, “But… It was lonely out there, and they made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Even if it was just for one night before they moved on to better planets.”

“Sex with strangers, Rey, that’s dangerous.”

She shook her head, “I had an implant put in when I was seventeen, used up all my credits, but I figured it’d be more expensive to have an accident,” she told him, “Jakku was no place for a child…” She laughed at the irony. She’d been a child herself when her parents had abandoned her, and her upbringing was the proof that the planet was truly not kid friendly. A sense of sorrow invaded her mind at the memory, and she shook it off, opting to change the subject back to him, “What about you? Have you ever…?”

Ben blushed, and swallowed down the piece of bread he’d been chewing on before he shook his head, “No,” he replied, “I’ve never…”

“Really?” she asked, though when she thought it through she wasn’t that surprised. As lax as the nights when Luke was gone must’ve been, at heart they were all part of the jedi order, and none of them would ever go that far. Then once he was under Snoke’s watch, it wasn’t likely that his new master would allow him to have dalliances of that sort either. There had truly been no time for Ben’s love life to ever blossom. Not until… she dared not think now.

“Why do you ask, Scavenger?”

Rey was blushing this time, “You started it,” she reminded him, “You got us on this topic.”

They shared an awkward laugh again, then they heard the sounds of the guards marching down the hallway to retrieve their plate, and they quickly ended their conversation.

When the guards had once again retreated down the hallway, they resumed meditating. They meditated for another hour before they felt anything again. At the end of that hour, Rey gasped as she realized that all their efforts had actually yielded them results. The progress was small, but it was made. For the first time since she’d accidentally moved the bed, she felt the force surrounding her in full, and she gasped audibly, letting go of Ben’s hands as she felt it flood through her in shock.

Ben’s own gasp entered her ears a moment later, and they looked up at each other with pride and wonder in their eyes. Had they actually done it? Had they finally cracked the code? Would they at long last be able to use the force and get them the hell out of there?

“Do you feel it?” Rey asked, knowing his answer would be a firm yes, but asking it anyway. She had to be sure this wasn’t just her imagination.

Ben nodded, “I… I don’t know how, but we did it.”

They laughed in delight, then Rey looked around the room. Her eyes locked on the pillow on the bed she no longer slept on, then she reached out for it, willing it to come towards her. The pillow shifted a few inches, but it never flew from the bed and into her lap the way she wanted it to. She pushed harder, straining herself a little as she willed it to her. It still didn’t budge.

She let go of the pillow, and collapsed to the ground panting, “Your turn,” she said between heaves of her chest.

Ben looked at her sympathetically, then he too turned to the pillow, and reached for it. She could feel him straining to move it through the bond, but he too only managed to move it a few inches before he collapsed beside her. He shook his head as he looked at her, “We need to work more…” he said, panting hard from his exertion, “It shouldn’t feel like this because we moved a pillow.”

She nodded, “We should, but we may need to take a break, we can’t afford to tire ourselves out before we escape.”

Another smirk was thrown her way, “We’ve had this conversation before,” he said softly, caressing her cheek with his right hand, “Only the roles were reversed.”

“But you’re not arguing with me,” she said, her eyes meeting his.

“Because you’re right,” Ben replied, “We should probably rest some before we try again. We’ve got a little bit of time.” He then kissed her briefly before he pushed himself off the floor, and offered her a hand. Once he helped her up, they walked over to the bed, and laid down on it.

As Ben lay flat on his back, Rey rested on her side, and wrapped an arm around his waist as she pulled herself closer to him. “I don’t know how I didn’t talk to you for three months,” she confessed, tilting her head to look up at his face, “I couldn’t imagine doing that now.”

“A lot has changed,” Ben replied, his eyes locked on the ceiling, “Rey, three months ago I tried to kill your friends… I tried to kill Luke… I wasn’t a good person. There’s a reason you didn’t talk to me, and… I understand it now.”

“Ben I’ve killed people, too.”

“Not as many as I have.”

“Enough to keep me up at night, and I know it keeps you up, too.”

Ben shuddered beneath her, and closed his eyes. Pain entered the bond. Intense, excruciating emotional pain overwhelmed her, and she felt tears rise to her eyes. She knew exactly who he was thinking of, exactly who kept him up at night. “He sacrificed himself, Rey,” he said after a moment, the lump in his throat obvious by the trembling, grief-filled tone of his voice, “I’ve thought of that moment every day since, and… He knew, he had to know what would happen to him if he went out there.”

All Rey could do was hold him and listen, rubbing soothing circles into his side as he spoke, “I didn’t want to do it, but I’ve had Snoke’s voice in my head all my life, and I…” A single tear fell onto his cheek, and he fell silent.

She kissed the tear from his cheek, tasting the saltiness of it on her tongue as she swallowed, “You were manipulated,” she reminded him, “All those things you did? That was Kylo Ren, not Ben Solo. And Ben?”

“Hmm…?”

“I forgive you, I forgave you a long time ago,” she replied, then he eased against her, and rolled onto his side so that he was pulling her into a bone crushing hug. She wrapped her arm around his back, and held onto him tightly. If she had her way, she’d never let go.

The next morning they were up a good hour before the guards came with breakfast, meditating as best they could before they were interrupted. Once again, Rey could feel the force in full around her, flowing within her, but it was still not quite at the strength it once was. She could feel both Ben’s frustration and her own in the bond, and she attempted to push feelings of calm through. It seemed to work, and by the time breakfast rolled around, they could move the pillow a few inches without collapsing from exhaustion.

When they were served breakfast, however, the guards damn near threw the plate to the ground, and left with a note that they would not be allowed outdoors time that day. Nor would they be served dinner. Rey supposed it was one last attempt to weaken them before they began torturing them anew. She swallowed nervously, dreading the thought of what would happen if she and Ben didn’t successfully get in touch with the force beforehand.

Rey sat down on the bed, feeling more hopeless than ever as she remembered that they had one, single day to get this right if they wanted to avoid being tortured again. It wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the world if they failed—unless one of their group spilled their secrets—but it would mean that their lives would be hell until they succeeded.

Her head fell into her hands as she hunched over on the bed. She felt the weight shift a minute later as Ben sat down beside her, one of his hands rubbing her back as gently as she knew he was capable of. A smile spread across her lips, but didn’t reach her eyes as she placed a hand on his knee.

“Rey, we’re going to be okay,” he promised, then lightning flashed outside their window, and she heard the inevitable boom of thunder barely a second later. Rain began to pour down onto the roof of the prison, and she suspected that some rather largely sized pieces of hail were accompanying it going by the abnormally loud pounding on the roof.

She looked up then over at the window to find that in the dim, silver light that had been slowly appearing in their view, and watched as the rain droplets poured down onto the prison. “I used to love the rain,” she said quietly, “And the snow.”

“Maybe when we get out of here I can take you somewhere that has snow,” Ben replied, his gaze falling on the window now as well, “Actually, I will. I promise, when we get out of here, we’re going to see a snowfall. One that’s on a planet that isn’t war torn, or… or here.”

His voice sounded so sincere, Rey felt herself trembling at his words as her gaze fell back on him. She felt her smile reach her eyes, then she reached up, and pulled him in for a kiss, her hand gripping his hair.

Ben returned the kiss instantly, wrapping his arms around her waist, and pulling her onto his lap as she kissed him. Without breaking the kiss, Rey shifted so that her legs were on either side of his, and lowered herself onto him. It was like their kiss from the day before when she’d straddled him, but something about this one felt different.

When he kissed her he poured everything he was feeling into the bond. His emotions were a swirling mixture of despair, fear, and love, and she could only try to ease his fear in return. After a few moments, Ben broke the kiss, and looked up at Rey with sorrowful eyes, “I wish we weren’t doing this here,” he said softly.

Rey’s hands fell down onto his chest, “Me too,” she whispered, “I wish we had more time, Ben, at the rate we’re going…”

“We might not make it,” Ben finished, his eyes drifting down to the ground as he spoke.

Rey scoffed, “Yes, we will, we just need to have hope.”

“We need to be prepared for what happens if we don’t,” Ben said, then he looked back at Rey, “I… I want to believe that we’re going to make it, but then I think about what happens if we don’t… This could be our last day alive if things go south tomorrow.”

“I know,” she replied as the tension in the room began to rise again, “But we’re going to make it, you promised you were going to show me snow, proper snow, too. We can’t die before then.”

There was a momentary pause, and Rey felt her heart hammering in her chest as he looked at her, “But we might, Rey, and I don’t...” There was something at the end of his sentence, something he wasn’t saying, and she wasn’t sure if he ever would. Still, she suspected she knew what it was, even if they’d spend the day dancing around it.

If they were going to die, she sure as hell wasn’t wasting her time waltzing around all those things they had yet to say... or to do.

“Ben…” she said, her breath shaking somewhat as Ben shifted so that his legs were on the bed as well, and she had a clear view of the window without having to turn her head. She looked at him head on as a sudden feeling of nervousness entered the bond, and she reciprocated it.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t open to doing this with Ben, but it had been a while since the last time… and she had never been with somebody she genuinely thought she might love. She’d never had sex in any other context than it just being a one night stand, one night to keep each other company- two ships passing in the night. This would be a first time for her in a sense, too, if they went through with it. The thought made her just as nervous as she sensed he was.

“I want to, Rey,” Ben said, his breath shaking as he looked at her with the softest eyes, his hands gripping tight on her waist as he let her know through the bond just how much he wanted to do this with her.

“Ben,” she breathed, feeling her whole body shuddering as he leaned in closer to her, thoroughly invading her space, though she didn’t mind one bit. She took his face in her hands, “Don’t do this just because you think we’re going to die, we’re going to make it. This is going to work.”

“Rey, we might die tomorrow, we might not, I don’t care,” he told her, a hint of a smile on his face, “I… I don’t care...”

“Ben-” Rey’s breath hitched as he closed off her words with a kiss, her entire body freezing for a moment before she processed what was happening, and quickly returned the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him close against her, never wanting to let go.

After a few seconds, she pulled away, panting as she spoke one single word to him, “Okay,” then Ben’s lips were on hers all over again, and she relinquished herself to the kiss.

Her hands found his hair as he began to move from her mouth, pressing kisses down the side of her neck -the exact same way she’d done to him the day before- that had her trembling in his arms. Somewhere down at the base of her neck, he pulled her shirt aside, and she gasped as he left a mark on her that would surely be around for days after.

“Be careful with those,” she warned him, “If they see that they’ll know.”

He pressed a kiss to her collar bone, “If we get out of here, Rey, they won’t see a damn thing.”

Ben pulled away from her again, and smirked openly at her. She shook her head, but laughed at him as they came together in another kiss, and Rey’s free hand came up to brush his cheek, her thumb trailing along the scar she’d left him. She pulled away from him, and admired it for a moment, remembering the day she gave it to him.

“You gave me that,” he reminded her.

“You were being a right arse that day.”

He hummed his assent, but he was quickly silenced by Rey pressing a kiss to the top of his scar, right above his eyebrow. She looked cautiously down at him as she pressed another to his cheek, slowly trailing kisses along the line of the scar. His breath hitched when she reached his neck, barely holding back the moan he knew he had to keep quiet in case the guards or other prisoners heard them.

She finished her assault on his willpower at his collar bone, shifting the fabric of his shirt aside to kiss the base of his scar, then she moved back to his lips only to find him smirking at her.

She looked down at him, knowing full well the intent behind that smirk. Her hand pressed gently against his chest, “Ben, are you sure?” She asked, gripping his hair firmly as she looked between his eyes. He’d already told her he was certain about this, but she still felt the need to triple check before they went any further.

Lightning flashed outside, illuminating his face as he stared up at her with a mixture of want and—she dared to hope—love. He gave her a nod, and took one of her hands in his, “I’m sure,” he replied, his voice barely a whisper. She noticed his jaw trembling slightly as he spoke and she felt his raw emotions through the bond. Felt how he’d never been touched, not like this, and how bad he wanted it to be her that first showed him this.

Rey nodded, “Okay,” she said, hoping her own voice wasn’t trembling as she reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head, and tossing it to the foot of the bed before she looked back at him. His eyes washed over her body with a hunger she’d only seen in the eyes of lovers. Was that what they were now? Were they lovers? Was that what she was sitting above him wearing only a breast band on her top half, staring down at him in eager anticipation? His lover?

Ben’s eyes drifted to the scar on her right arm, the one she’d been given the day they’d fought side by side for the first time, and he reached up a hand, his fingers feeling delicately along the thin line of the scar. “Let me return the favor,” he said, sitting up to press gentle kisses along the line of the scar as his hands cupped her back.

Thunder rumbled loudly overhead, causing Rey to shudder slightly in his arms, and Ben broke from his kisses to take her face in his hands, “Are you alright?”

She nodded, “Fine, the storm’s just… loud.”

“It’s always been loud, Rey.”

She laughed softly, and pulled him in for another kiss, letting her fears melt away as she kissed him senseless, holding the kiss until she couldn’t breathe. When she broke away for breath, she looked down at his shirt, observing disappointedly that it was still on, “We seem to be a bit uneven,” she pointed out, tugging lightly on the fabric at his shoulders.

Ben laughed, then he pulled away from her, and tugged the shirt off before he too tossed it to the foot of the bed, exposing his own map of nicks and scars he’d obtained over the years.

They stared at each other for a moment, drinking in the sight of their scarred bodies, some of them old, and others wrought about by their unfortunate time in the prison. It felt like they were frozen in time, like someone had paused everything when they were standing on the edge of a great precipice and were about to jump over.

Rey moved first, burying her hands in his hair as she pushed him down onto the pillow, and kissed him again, trailing her kisses down onto his neck, and leaving little marks as she went further down. It would be best if they were hidden beneath his shirt, that way the guards wouldn’t become suspicious when they inevitably tortured him again.

Ben gasped as she moved, the sound of thunder muting the noise. The loud rumbling overhead was intercut by the sight of lightning striking outside in the ever brightening sky, illuminating Ben’s face as he stared up at her in wonder. Rey felt an overwhelming amount of love and admiration pouring into the bond, and her cheeks turned red as she rested her palms on Ben’s bare chest, “You should know, it’s been a while for me.”

Ben chuckled, “Rey, it’s been _never_ for me,” he said, placing a hand over one of hers, “I don’t care about how perfect it is, I just want it to be _you.”_

Rey felt him trembling beneath her, his heart doing double time in his chest. She felt her own breathing shudder as she reached around her back, and began to unwrap her breast band, then she let it fall to the ground beside him as she gazed into his eyes.

She bent down, and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, her hands once again finding his hair as their bare chests came together. One of Ben’s hands held onto her upper back, and the other gripped her left thigh as she moved on top of him, grinding him down into the bed slightly as she ghosted her kisses over his jaw, bringing them back down onto his neck. She then moved back up so that they were face to face, and slid her hand down from Ben’s hair to caress his cheek, as she smiled softly, "Don't be afraid," she told him, her voice barely a whisper.  
  
“I’m not afraid,” he replied, his voice faint as his hand reached up to support the base of her skull a laugh escaping his lips as he leaned into her touch, “Rey, I…” he started, but didn’t seem to know how to finish his sentence.

Rey fought back tears as they rose to her eyes, “Ben…”  
  
He smiled at her, and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, “Rey, when we get out of here, I don’t want this to change.”  
  
She shook her head, “It won’t,” she promised softly, “When we get out of here, you’re living in my bunk. And that’s not a question.”  
  
Ben kissed her again, “I would’ve said yes,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her waist as he pulled her against him.  
  
Rey laughed, then her expression sobered, and something she knew she wouldn’t be able to say bubbled up inside of her. She looked up at him to find a sense of understanding washing over the bond like the rain outside, and she realized she didn’t even have to say a damn word for him to know what she wanted to say.  
  
He kissed her forehead this time, “I know,” he whispered softly, then he laughed, the sound barely audible over the thunder clap that shook the ground around them.  
  
“What is it?” Rey asked curiously.  
  
Ben sighed, “I have no idea what I’m doing, Rey.”  
  
Rey smirked at him, then she pressed him back into the bed further, “Then let me show you,” she said, then her hands reached for the button of his trousers, and they fell over the precipice.

The rain relentlessly poured down on the roof of the prison as they continued to undress each other. Lightning flashed through their window, illuminating the passionate scene. Booming thunder shook the ground, though that wasn’t the only thing causing the slight tremble in the two of them as they locked eyes in the steamy heat in their cell.  
  
Both were undeniably nervous, but as time progressed, they eased into each other, Rey tilted her head back as Ben’s lips kissed droplets of sweat from her neck, and he brought her closer and closer to her climax. He proved himself to be just as quick oh a learner as she was, shifting their position midway through so that he was on top of her, and she immediately pulled him tightly against her.

Another flash of lightning lit up the darkened scene, and Rey found herself clutching him tighter as the inevitably loud boom of thunder followed. She knew Ben sensed her fear through the bond when he briefly looked up to wipe a dampened string of hair from her sweat drenched forehead, then he locked his lips with hers again to distract her from her fear.  
  
Instantly, she calmed from his touch, and she lost herself in the feelings he was bringing her, in the feeling of the force swirling around them in full. It had never felt more powerful than it did in that moment, and as Rey locked eyes with him, breaking their most recent kiss she knew he sensed it, too. They would make it, they would be okay, and they would have a future after this.  
  
Their bond hummed in the background as the two force users moved together in a perfect harmony, both of them slowly losing sight of the fear that had initially followed them into this journey. Ben’s fear seemed to disappear before her as he focused all of his energy on showing Rey just how much he cared about her. Just how much he’d wanted to just dive into being with her for the past two weeks. Through the bond she could feel how much he wanted her. Nothing had ever felt more right to her than the moment they were creating in their cell on some cursed planet at the galaxy’s edge.  
  
The sounds of the thunderstorm outside seemed to build to a crescendo—or perhaps that was just her imagination—as they approached their climaxes, whispering each other’s names as they grew closer. The force hummed loudly around them, its noise drowning out all others as Ben’s lips trailed kisses down her neck, and her nails left pink trails down his back while the tension built. Once again, the prison’s walls melted away completely, and it was just Rey, Ben, and the force.  
  
Rey held onto him tighter than she ever had before as she came, and he followed soon after, his name a whisper on her lips, and hers on his as they held onto each other as if they’d never let go.  
  
As they came down from their respective highs, they stared at each other breathlessly. It took Rey moments to realize Ben was panting as he held her, not caring at his breathlessness when he kissed her again, and she ran her hands through his hair even though she was as breathless as he was. As the heat faded from their bodies, Rey began to shiver beneath him, and he pulled away, and slowly panted out, “You’re… You’re shivering… Are you… all right?”  
  
She nodded slowly, “Yeah…” she panted, “Just cold…”  
  
Once the steam from their passionate moment in the cell had settled, the chilly air from the storm outside once again took over, leaving the two unclothed people in the bed to its mercy. Rey held him tightly against her, seeking his warmth as the temperature continued to drop.  
  
Ben on the other hand slowly pulled off of her, and reached down to grab their blankets from the bed, wrapping them around himself and Rey in order to warm her. “Better?”  
  
“Much,” she assured him, smiling up at him as the world slowly stopped spinning, and she noticed that despite the added warmth from the blankets, Ben was shaking as well. It was subtle, but it was enough that she picked up on it, and she rested a concerned hand on his arm, “You’re trembling, too.”  
  
The corners of his mouth twitched slightly, “Yes, I am.”  
  
“Are you cold? Or…?”  
  
Ben shook his head, “No, I’m… I’m just…” he paused, searching for the right word to describe his feelings, though she knew exactly how he was feeling. His delight was shining through their bond, louder than any emotion he’d ever given her, including his anger. For a man who had been swallowed by darkness for six years, Ben Solo had more light within him than she’d ever seen. His smile was genuine as he laid down beside her in their post-coital bliss, “It’s you. I finally made my choice because of you. After all those years of being torn apart… You…” he pressed a kiss to her forehead, “I…”

It became clear to her he didn’t have words to finish his sentence with, but Rey’s heart soared at the words he did manage to say, and she kissed him again, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him closer to her until their bodies were flush against each other. It wasn’t an easy feat to pull off in a bed that size, but over the course of their time together, they’d managed a lot of things.  
  
They stayed that way for a few moments, wrapped in their prison blankets, making up for all the lost time they’d given up as she’d shut him out for three months. Ben’s lips provided a welcome distraction from everything they’d faced, and though they were trapped in this prison with the galaxy’s most risky escape plan, she’d never felt more certain that they’d be all right.  
  
“Rey?” Ben asked suddenly, interrupting the silence that had fallen between them.  
  
Thunder boomed outside as she looked up at him, but the rain slowly grew quieter as the storm began to subside. “Yeah?”  
  
He swallowed nervously, then he locked eyes with her, and pressed another kiss to her lips, lingering there for a second too long before he spoke, “We can’t stay like this,” he whispered, “They’ll catch us.”  
  
Rey sighed, and rested her head against his bare chest, “You’re right,” she replied, not wanting to move away from him. A moment passed in complete silence as the weight of what they’d just done together sank in. If Rey had told herself sixteen days ago that she’d be in this position she would’ve thrown punches, but now… Now there was no one else she’d rather have lying next to her.

Beside her, Ben was laughing softly, “What's so funny?” She asked, already giggling though she didn’t know what it was.  
  
She turned to look at Ben, who was still grinning from ear to ear, “You're a Jedi.”  
  
It took her a moment to realize why the joke was funny, then she, too, found herself in a fit of giggles. Ben stopped her laughter when he pulled her in for another kiss, his hand cupping the base of her skull as he pulled her against him, then he sighed as he broke away, “When we’re free, we’re going to do that as often as we can.”  
  
Rey grinned at him, “Who said we had to wait till we were free?” She asked, pulling him back in for another kiss, then they continued to tangle the sheets as the storm raged outside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel the need to inform you all that this had a working title of "may the force be in you." And the scene was originally going to be a little more explicit, but IT WAS ALREADY 6600 WORDS.


	15. Return of the Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you think we’ll make it?” Rey asked him after a moment of silence, her fingers tracing the scar she’d given him, the scar she’d trailed kisses down. The chills that action had sent down his spine were suddenly running down it all over again at the memory, and a smile rose to his face.
> 
> He nodded firmly, “Yes, I do,” he replied, turning to face her as his hand found the small of her back, once again pulling her into him, “Because when we get out of here, we’re doing that everywhere.”
> 
> She giggled against him as her fingers finished tracing the scar just beneath his collar bone, “Everywhere?” she repeated.
> 
> “Everywhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got really carried away with this one, and I feel like by the end of it I might need to put up a violence warning... But that's a strong maybe. Also, I'm sorry for the sheer amount of angst we're about to barrel into. And I've got finals coming up next week, so god only knows if I'll be able to update at all over the next several days.

Another hour later, Ben was holding Rey in his arms and they were both panting hard as she looked down at him, an intensity in her gaze that still had him trembling beneath her. His breathing became no easier as she slid off of him, and laid down by his side, wrapping an arm over his sweat coated chest.

The storm outside continued to rage, the wind howling louder than ever before as rain and hail slammed down onto the roof. The sky had darkened once again to near black in the severity of the storm, only illuminated by the frequent flashes of lightning. The subsequent booms of thunder gave them the perfect cover to do virtually anything they wanted, but they’d already tried their luck twice that morning. They didn’t need to push it with a third.

His thoughts were consumed by all they’d done since the morning had started. He thought about the gentle way she’d asked if he was certain before they began, the way it felt to be inside her, the way her face looked when she came, her mouth open in a soft O, but not allowing any sound to come out as they made love as quietly as they could. He thought of the choked sound he’d emitted when she had finally brought him to his peak, and she’d gently shushed him as she rocked on top of him.

The force had never been closer than it had been in that moment, when they were joined in the most intimate way possible. It had been singing around them, and their bond had positively erupted with the intensity of the emotions they were feeling. For those two hours, Ben forgot about the prison and the guards, and every stupid thing that had happened to him in the past two and a half weeks. There was only him, and there was only Rey.

He felt a smile rise to his face as he looked at her, watching her catch her breath beside him as she cooled down. Her light radiated brilliantly through the bond. It had been brighter than the lightning striking outside, washing into him in a way that had him feeling as if he’d become something holy, like he’d been cleansed. The darkness had its claws digged into him for so long, he’d almost forgotten what the light, pure, unadulterated light, could feel like.

Rey caught him staring in that moment, and a blush rose to her cheeks, reddening them further after the strain she’d undergone in the past two hours, “What?” She asked softly, reaching up a hand to thread her fingers through his hair. Like it wasn’t tangled enough as it was.

He said nothing as he pulled her tightly to him, relishing in the feeling of her naked body pressed against his as he kissed her again, and lightning struck outside. It felt like he might pass out then and there when she moaned ever so softly into the kiss, the sound reminding him of all the other noises he’d heard from her lips that morning. His memories sent him reeling as his hand cupped her jaw, and he continued to kiss her like there was no tomorrow. For all they knew, there wasn’t.

After a few minutes, Rey broke the kiss, and her hand moved down from his hair to cup his cheek, wiping away a bead of sweat that had stopped there. As he watched her, he felt as if they were under some sort of spell, like this was a dream. He never wanted it to end. If he had his way, he would lie there with her all day. He would never move again.

Whenever he’d thought about this moment in his youth, he hadn’t exactly pictured it happening in a prison with his life on the line and a potential for it to end just days later. Hell, he hadn’t exactly pictured it happening at all when he was training with Luke, and when he’d been with Snoke… There hadn’t exactly been opportunities for this sort of thing in the first order either.

But somehow the way it had happened with Rey’s gentle teasing turning into something much more serious had been better than anything else. Even despite the prison and the walls that surrounded them, this was the way it was always meant to happen. Still, he’d change the prison bit if he could.

“Do you think we’ll make it?” Rey asked him after a moment of silence, her fingers tracing the scar she’d given him, the scar she’d trailed kisses down. The chills that action had sent down his spine were suddenly running down it all over again at the memory, and a smile rose to his face.

He nodded firmly, “Yes, I do,” he replied, turning to face her as his hand found the small of her back, once again pulling her into him, “Because when we get out of here, we’re doing that _everywhere._ ”

She giggled against him as her fingers finished tracing the scar just beneath his collar bone, “Everywhere?” she repeated.

“Everywhere.”

“Promise?”

“I promise,” he replied, pulling her in for another brief kiss before he sighed, “We should probably get back to work. We won’t get out of here until we can use the force again.”

She groaned perhaps a little too loudly, “You’re right, but I want to lie here for just a little while longer. We have a whole day, you know.”

“Me too,” he admitted, then he wrapped his arms tightly around her, and proceeded to hold her as they continued to bask in the afterglow of what they’d just done, of the moment they’d created together in the walls of the cell.

“It feels like we’re closer to the force, somehow,” Rey murmured, her voice barely a whisper as she talked, “I felt it more strongly than ever. It was all around us, it’s like when we move together it’s stronger”

Ben hummed his assent, “It was a perfect balance,” he said, rubbing her back gently, “I haven’t felt light like that in so long I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.”

Rey fell silent beside him, and he frowned as she looked up at the ceiling, eyes unseeing as a million thoughts raced behind her eyes. “Rey?” he asked softly, “What’s going on?”

Thunder boomed outside, and Rey flinched beside him, holding onto him just a little bit tighter than she had been. As the rain slammed down above them, Rey sighed, “I wish I’d told you sooner,” she replied, and he could feel her heart racing in her chest as her emotions swirled through the bond, “Ben, I…”

She never got to finish that sentence. In that moment, just beneath all the rain, hail, and thunder, he heard a sound that made his face turn the color of snow. The guards’ footsteps were echoing down the halls, marching toward them. They had less than a minute to prepare themselves.

“Shit!” Ben muttered, throwing the sheets aside and searching desperately for the clothes they’d flung to the end of the bed. Fear rushed through the bond as Rey sat up as well, and rushed over to him, taking her clothes as quickly as he could hand them to her.

He dressed faster than he ever had before, hearing the sound of the guards’ marching getting closer and closer. He wondered briefly if they were going to make it, but just as he slid his shirt over his head, just as Rey dove over to her side of the room, the footsteps stopped right outside their cell door.

A tense moment passed where the guards didn’t move, and Ben looked over at Rey with his heart pounding in his chest, the sound louder than the storm around them somehow. She looked terrified, just about as much as he felt, the emotions she sent into the bond reflected his perfectly as he stepped up to the window, and peered out of it to find the guards were heading for Finn and Poe’s cell. Instead of the usual four, there were eight of them, and despite the masks they always wore, he could tell they were utterly irate.

“Which one do you want to take first?” one of them asked the lead guard as they opened the cell.

  
“That one,” the head guard replied without hesitation, but Ben couldn’t tell who he was talking about as all of the guards marched in. He heard a few grunts, then a shout of protest, and a punch was thrown before the eight guards emerged with Poe, marching him forward with his hands cuffed in front of them.

The door to Finn and Poe’s cell slammed behind them, and a second later, Finn’s face appeared against the barred window, blood dripping from a fresh cut above his left eyebrow as he looked down the hall after Poe in horror. His eyes were full of despair as he watched them round the corner, and Poe disappeared from sight. Ben looked on sympathetically, his eyes locking with Finn’s after a minute, and he found his heart breaking a little for the other man as he watched his eyes mist, “They lied,” Finn said, “They lied…”

Ben took a minute to compose himself, not wanting his voice to waiver as he spoke, “What do you mean, they lied, Finn?” he asked as Rey joined him at the window, her fingers lacing with his out of its view.

“They’re coming back today,” Finn said, his voice trembling, “Please tell me you guys got somewhere.”

Oh, they’d gotten somewhere alright, but suddenly Ben found himself regretting the beautiful morning they’d had together. If they had just been meditating instead, maybe they could’ve been out of there already. But they’d gotten caught up in one another, and they’d… They’d thought they had more time. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Rey just then, but he could feel her pain and regret through the bond as she let go of his hand.

“We’re close,” he told Finn, and it wasn’t exactly a lie, but maker help him, they weren’t close enough. Feeling Rey’s confusion, he looked back at her, and took her face in his hands, not caring that Finn could see, “We can do this, we’re going to make it,” he promised her, then he kissed her forehead, “No matter what happens.”

Finn was looking at them with a knowing smile on his face as Ben pulled away, “Get to work, then,” he told them, then he backed away from the window, and they heard his bed shift as he plopped down onto it.

Ben and Rey looked at each other for a minute, but neither needed to say a word as they moved to their spot on the floor, and hurriedly worked to get as much meditating in as they could before they returned Poe, and exchanged him for Finn.

There was a nervous glance exchanged between them, then Ben smiled softly at Rey, waiting until it was returned before he joined his hands with hers, and they began to meditate for their lives.

The thunderstorm outside continued to rage, seeming to somehow worsen with each passing moment. It was a wonder the whole prison didn’t collapse beneath the winds and the weight of the hail alone. The thought distracted him thoroughly, but once he felt the force wrapping around himself and Rey, his focus was brought back to the task at hand. It was still as strong as it had been moments earlier, but not quite what they desperately needed it to be.

After a few minutes, Rey reached out for the pillow again, this time managing to get it to fall off the bed, but it still wouldn’t come to her. Ben pulled it the rest of the way over to them with a puzzled look on his face, wondering why their progress had become so agonizingly slow.

They didn’t have much time to think on it. The guards began their march down the hallway a minute later, and they separated themselves to the different beds on opposite sides of the cell. They held their breath as they waited, but Ben let his out with a shudder as the guards rushed towards Finn and Poe’s cell, and immediately the former stormtrooper was shouting at them, “Where’s Poe?” He cried.

Rey gasped softly beside him, and they exchanged another horrified look as the guards began to open the cell door. She and Ben were on their feet instantly, looking on as the guards unlocked the cell. Poe was noticeably absent, and they could only guess as to why.

Pure fear rushed through the bond, and Ben watched as Rey’s face turned a shade of red as she looked on, “ _What the hell did you do to him?!_ ” Rey screamed at the guard, pressing her face firmly against the bars as the guards reached for Finn.

“Quiet, foolish girl, or you’ll join them!” the guard shouted back as he continued to open Finn’s cell.

“ _WHERE IS HE?_ ” Rey demanded.

“ _BRING HIM BACK!_ ” Finn was shouting, “ _DONT YOU TOUCH HIM!_ ”

The guard looked like he had had enough, “I said _QUIET!!_ ” he ordered as he finally opened the door to Finn’s cell, and reached for him, only to have Finn dodge him successfully, and punch him square across the jaw.

“Where the hell is he?” Finn cried as the guard stood frozen in front of him, rubbing at the exposed, pale skin of his lower face where his mask had come up during the punch.

“Don't!”

The guard fixed his mask, his posture visibly stiffening as he glared at Finn, and one of the other guards pointed a blaster at him, threatening to shoot if he moved. The first guard quickly handcuffed Finn, this time taking his hands behind his back instead of in front of him. _That wasn’t good._ “Haven’t learned your lesson yet, have you?” the guard asked, and Ben swallowed nervously as the guard led Finn out into the hall.

“Don’t hurt him, please don’t hurt him!” Rey cried beside him before he could stop her. The wrong thing to do in this moment was to draw any sort of attention to themselves, but Rey had done just that, and now all four guards’ eyes were on her. He could almost see the wicked grin behind the leader’s mask.

“Why don’t we kill three birds with one stone, lads?” the lead guard said, handing Finn over to one of his comrades, “Take her, make him watch. Let them know what happens when you keep things from us. Let them know what their commander endured today that finally made him break.” As Ben thought through the implication of what they’d done to Poe, the guards burst inside the cell, and both he and Rey were marched outside of the cell, handcuffed in much the same manner as Finn.

For the first time, Ben saw what their neighbors in the other cells looked like, the diverse faces of many men and women from either side of the miserable war carrying on outside were pressed up against the glass to gain a glimpse of the commotion. He wondered what these people thought of them, having no doubt listened to the conversations they had between the cells for the past several days, what they thought of what was happening to them now.

He didn’t have time to think on it as he was forced to his knees, and Finn and Rey were pushed back out of his reach. All he could do was watch with panicked eyes as a guard threw the first punch at Finn, visibly knocking the wind out of him as he stumbled backwards into another guard.

The second punch was thrown at Rey, the pain of the fist colliding with her face rushing over to him through the bond, and he too jerked his face away. The guards mistook the action as one of emotional suffering, and a hand clamped down onto his hair, and jerked his head back in Rey and Finn’s direction as the other guards launched punch after brutal punch on his friends, drawing blood from both of them on their jaws, their foreheads, their collarbones as the assault went on. Ben fought to keep his expression neutral as the pain Rey was feeling reflected back on him, his jaw clamping shut to keep from screaming even as Rey’s took a brutal punch.

Their cries echoed down the hall, drowning out the sound of the thunderstorm that was howling outside. Ben was fairly certain that the entire prison could hear them, and not just this particular wing. Hell, he wouldn’t be surprised if their shouts reached out into space and finally alerted the resistance- at this point, he’d even almost be grateful to see the first order again- to their whereabouts. No more than a minute had passed, though when they had finally rendered Finn and Rey unable to stand, and the two collapsed to the ground as fists turned into the hard, steel toe of boots.

As one guard landed a particularly hard kick in Rey’s ribs, Ben let out a choked cry of pain, quickly silencing himself, but not quickly enough.

“Quiet!” one of the guards yelled at him, and oh, he desperately wanted to remain so, but the pain was getting to be too much, and he didn’t have the bare minimum luxury of a pillow to scream into or a bed to lie down on to get him through this. He was on his knees with his hands cuffed behind his back, and his focus was too far gone to even try to send waves of happiness to Rey as much as he tried to conjure up the memories.

When another guard’s foot met the exact same spot on Rey’s rib, there was a horrid crack, and Ben openly screamed, doubling over as he felt the pain of at least one of her ribs _breaking._ The guards at his sides quickly rushed to get him upright, and the others who were beating Rey and Finn into pulps froze for a moment, offering him a brief reprieve from the pain- or, it would’ve, if he weren’t still feeling the fresh pain of a rib breaking, feeling Rey gasping for air as she struggled to breathe. On the ground, Finn worked to catch his breath, looking between Ben and Rey with the one eye that hadn’t been swiftly swollen shut from the beating, his own face becoming one of horror as he realized something that hadn’t quite hit Ben yet.

The lead guard, who had just administered that last, rib breaking kick to Rey, stood still, looking between him and Rey for a moment, then he stepped towards the latter. She shook her head, begging him with the last of her strength not to do whatever horrible thing it was that he was about to do, but it was too late. He pulled her up by her hair earning him a small grunt from Ben, and Rey could only whimper- he sensed she was in too much pain to even scream- as he lifted her up, and pulled a small knife from his belt with his other hand before he pressed it against the base of her neck. The pointed end of the knife drew blood where he’d pressed it a little too hard, the action causing Ben to wince visibly.

Ben’s heart caught in his chest, and a wave of nausea washed over him as he realized that they’d figured it out. Since he hadn’t been strong enough to try and resist the pain, they had figured out that somehow, he and Rey were connected. He watched as the dots connected in the guards eyes beneath his mask, and once again it felt like he could see the sinister grin beneath.

“If what I’ve just seen is correct…” the lead guard began, his gaze continuing to dart between Rey and Ben, “You feel what she feels. I’m assuming it works the same vice versa?”

Ben said nothing, and the lead guard gave the men holding him a nod, then a punch was thrown into his own rib cage, causing him to grimace, but Rey’s face blanched completely white as she gritted her teeth with pain. The guard let out a pleased chuckle, delighted to have discovered a brand new way of torturing them, “Two force users who can feel each other’s pain… I’ve never heard of that one before, not that anyone knows much to begin with… you’re mysteries, you two are,” he told them, then he adjusted his grip on Rey, cutting the knife ever so slightly into her skin. Red dripped down Rey’s collarbone, staining the already rather ruined beige shirt she’d been given weeks prior before the guard stopped, his expression unreadable as he reacted to Ben’s second wince of pain. “Tell me who you are.”

“I won’t tell you anything,” Ben promised him, his voice full of vigor despite the overwhelming urge he had to break down and tell them absolutely everything.

The guard shook his head, then his hand left Rey’s hair to grip her side right where he’d broken her rib a moment earlier, his fingers digging into the undoubtedly bruised flesh. A burning agony ripped through Ben as Rey screamed through gritted teeth, a sheen of sweat developing on her forehead as she managed to somehow turn paler than she’d already been. “If you don’t tell me something, I’ll break another one” he promised, his head shifting as he looked up and down Rey’s body in a way that made Ben’s skin crawl, “Or I’ll break something else… Actually… Why don’t we make a deal? I’ll let you go for the day, if you tell me one thing.”

One thing. That seemed doable. Ben could tell him a number of small, irrelevant things that would likely suffice--at least in his terms. There was always the risk that the guard was once again lying, and he would claim that whatever Ben told him wasn’t good enough. At this point, he would willingly tell him anything, if only so he could stop Rey or Finn from feeling anymore pain, they’d both been through enough. “What do you want to know?” Ben asked through gritted teeth.

“Don’t tell them anything,” Finn begged him, receiving another shove by a foot to his shoulder as soon as the words left his mouth. A cry left his throat, but he quickly recovered, looking up at Ben with pleading eyes from his position on the floor.

Rey’s raspy voice entered his ears next, “Please,” she begged, though to whom she was begging he wasn’t sure. Was it to ask him not to say anything even as all this pain was inflicted upon her? Was it at the guards to beg them to stop? Was it just a general cry to the universe from a woman whose knees had gone weak and the only thing supporting her was the rough, iron grip of the man who had just beaten her? He couldn’t tell, all he knew was he had to ignore his friends’ wishes.

The guard had been given plenty of time to think as this went on, then he cocked his head to the side, and peered curiously at him, “Let’s start with your name.”

Ben felt a bit taken aback by the request, but he quickly realized it was one he could easily oblige. The rest of the galaxy knew him as Kylo Ren at this point, with Ben Solo being nothing but a forgotten memory in the hearts of a select few members of the resistance. It was doubtful that they’d know who he was if he actually told them the truth, but he elected to leave out one small detail, “It’s Ben,” he said, thanking the Maker that his voice hadn’t trembled as he spoke, “My name is Ben.”

“Ben…?” the guard asked, clearly looking for his surname.

“You asked for my name, I gave it to you, now let us go,” Ben replied, glaring at the guard as if he still towered over him even though he was in chains on his knees. A scoff left the man who was holding tightly to Rey, but Ben was quick to interrupt him before he could say anything else, “Please, they’ve had enough. You won’t get anything out of us if we’re dead.”

This piece of logic seemed to strike well within the guards, and he was given a nod, “Fair enough,” the guard replied, then he gestured to the other guards, and slowly but surely, their restraints were undone. “Put them away. We’ll be back tomorrow. Oh, and I’ll give the commander your regards,” he added.

Ben struggled to find relief as Rey’s pain washed over him anew when the guard released his iron grip on Rey, and she nearly collapsed to the ground before he rushed forward and caught her, being careful not to touch her right side where she’d been wounded. The moment reminded him of their second day in the prison, the first time she’d seen the snow outside of the context of battle when she’d been pushed and subsequently fallen into his arms. The thought pushed the shortest-lived happiness ever into the bond before they were being ushered into their cell, and thrown haphazardly in the direction of their beds on the opposite sides of the cell.

He vaguely registered the same thing happening to Finn behind him, but he couldn’t be certain of it as he was briefly blinded by white hot pain emanating from his ribs. He wasn’t sure when the guards left, but when the pain finally subsided enough to let him think, they were gone, and the door to their cell was shut.

His gaze fell over to where Rey laid on her bed, eyes taking in her bruised and bloodied form. From the bleeding cut above her eyebrow to the one traced just above her collar bone by the knife, he studied the lines and colors that now decorated her features. Part of her jaw was covered in a horrid violet speckled with the drippings of still fresh blood and sweat, her left cheek had a cut running across it that had only dripped a little, already beginning to scab over. That area was also a nasty shade of blue that no one should ever be unless they were born as such. The horrid bruises carried on all the way down to the visible parts of her neck, making her already sheet white skin damn near _ghostly_.

She was staring up at the ceiling with tears rushing down her cheeks now as her eyes struggled to blink open, and a feeling of phenomenal discomfort that wasn’t his washed over him. Her chest rose and fell unevenly, and she took short, sharp breaths to prevent herself from feeling anymore pain. His heart broke at the sight, and though he was still reeling from the secondhand pain, he slowly got up, and made his way over to her.

“Ben…” she croaked, tear filled eyes meeting his as he sat down on the bed beside her, being extremely cautious not to jostle her too much as he laid down beside her. She didn’t seem to have quite the same concern as she shifted toward him, resting her head on his arm for a pillow, but she didn’t turn into him like she always did. She whimpered softly, and a lump formed in the back of his throat while he wrapped his free arm around her good side.

A large, wet tear leaked down onto his arm as she turned her head to face him, looking like she wanted nothing more than to bury her face in it, but with her new injury she wasn’t quite capable of it. He watched her in solemn silence as a tear streaked through her bloodstained face, cleaning up the grime beneath it as it went, leaving her with a single patch of clear skin down her cheek where it had fallen. “Rey, I’m so sorry,” he said softly, his hand coming up to caress her face, but then he thought better of it. He didn’t want to cause her any more pain than he already had.

She sniffled, then slowly, she took a deep breath, “Why did you tell them your name?” she asked, her voice trembling as she met his eyes, “Why did you do that? They could’ve hurt you for more they could’ve-” her voice broke off with a sharp hiss as she gritted her teeth once more.

Another sharp pain hit Ben simultaneously, and he sighed, “Rey, they broke something,” he told her, “If… If they’d gone any further... It was a risk I was willing to take.”

Rey let out another groan of pain, a fresh sheen of sweat developing on her brow as her eyes began to unfocus again, “You didn’t… You didn’t have to… Do that…” Her scolding tone quickly diminished as he watched her finally, and agonizingly slowly, succumb to shock.

“Shh, don’t strain yourself, you need to be still,” he warned her, feeling her exhaustion coming over him in waves, but as she slowly began to slip into unconsciousness, it filled him with a sort of serenity that had him feeling like he was at peace for the first time since that morning… That beautiful, wonderful morning that felt like a lifetime ago after the horrible, hellish day they’d had. He let the memory fill him, his happiness washing over the bond as Rey succumbed to unconsciousness at long last, falling completely limp in his arms.

It was then and only then, when she was trapped deep in the throes of sleep, that he finally let the tears he’d been holding back spring from his eyes. He covered his face with the hand he’d had wrapped around Rey’s waist as he withheld sobs from leaving his throat, not wanting to risk shaking Rey and the bed and injure her further. Ben pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead as he blinked more tears from his eyes, then he pulled away, and watched her for a moment as she slept.

With the tiniest of shudders, he realized that they hadn’t even had the chance to enact their plan, to escape. A horrid twinge of fear snuck into his mind as he realized that now with all these new injuries, they had a minimal chance of actually escaping, and a more likely chance of revealing everything and costing them their lives. He remembered vividly what had happened to the last prisoners who’d revealed something, the sight of the neighbor’s body--the neighbor who had once occupied this very cell-- falling to the ground still fresh in his mind.

The feeling of hopelessness somehow made him feel colder. It felt as if something had turned down the temperature in the room even further just on his mood alone… Or…

He slowly turned his head, then he nearly knocked Rey off of his arm as he jerked up at the sight of their window, the glass pane slightly ajar, letting in the cold air of the planet outside that had slowly started to become snow once more. The howling winds had turned the snow into blizzard conditions outside, and as he stared at it in shock, he wondered just how in the hell it had popped open. In all seventeen of their days there, the damn things hadn’t budged, and yet…

Looking back at Rey, he slowly lifted his arm, and set her head back down on the pillow as he moved to get out of the bed. He tried his hardest not to shift Rey as she slept, but she still let out a groan in her sleep, her features contorting in a pained wince.

He had to force himself to ignore it as he walked over to the window, reaching up to touch the loosened pane with one hand. He grasped it within his fingers, and with a bit of effort, he tugged it toward him. The aged hinges squeaked rather loudly as he moved it, causing him to cringe, but he pressed on, opening the window until the blizzard was exposed to him and he was being pelted by snow. A confused, shaking breath left his lips as he thought over just how in the hell this had happened, then he slowly closed the window, but left it ever so slightly ajar. He didn’t know if he’d be able to open it again once he closed it.

From the bed, he heard another groan as Rey cried out in her sleep, and suddenly he had an idea why the window had suddenly sprung open. He remembered what she’d told him about when she’d been in the most pain she’d ever been in as they tortured him that last time, and she’d moved the bed. Ben looked back at the window one last time, and suddenly he could feel the force around him, swirling as powerfully as it had that morning.  

He reached out for the window with his mind, willing it to open toward him as he knew she’d unintentionally done earlier. For a moment, all it did was twitch on the hinges, but then as he strained a little further, it flew all the way open, and once again, he was pelted with snow.

The cold took his breath away, and he coughed against it as he used the force once again to close the window, this time feeling confident enough to close it all the way.

A smirk rose to his features as he realized that the guards had made one, crucial mistake. They’d pushed them too far, far enough that even with their apparently advanced force blocking technology, they’d managed to beat it. Once Rey woke up, there would be nothing stopping them. They were going to get out of there. They were going to get Finn, and rescue Poe, and they were going to be free.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry.


	16. Rescue Mission Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You did it.”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “You lashed out again when they tortured you yesterday, you opened the window first. Somehow… You unblocked us. We’re back, Rey, we’re back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight this is going to be the last chapter until at least Wednesday because I've got all of my god damned finals over the next two days and I'm screaming really loudly. Anybody else going through finals right now, soldier on, my dudes.

When Rey woke up, she was in a whole world of burning pain. It hurt more than anything else she had experienced, it felt like her entire torso was on fire and she couldn’t put out the flames. She tried to take in a deep breath, and calm herself down, but that only made it worse somehow. 

A pained groan left her lips as she reached up a weak hand, and gingerly rested her hand on the part of her rib cage that was hurting her the most. She gasped sharply, and pulled her hand away, but she moved too fast, and another burst of pain rushed through her. She couldn’t even scream, even that hurt too much. Her face aches all over, too, and so did a majority of her body. She felt like she’d just fought the war for the galaxy and lost single handedly. 

It was then that she became aware of Ben’s presence beside her as he let out a groan of his own, but said nothing as he worriedly sat up, and looked over her. As his eyes looked her up and down, she suddenly remembered what had happened to her that afternoon, every painful second of it. It had been worse than even the moment in the cell when Ben had been tortured, and she’d moved the bed. Once again she’d felt the force swirling around her, causing her to lash out again but she couldn’t tell if anything had happened. 

Even now, she could feel it. The force was right there, it almost felt like it used to. It felt like she had a grip on it now, albeit an unsecure one. Something had shifted since the last time she was conscious. Something was vastly different then than it had been before. It made her wonder...

“Ben,” she said softly, taking in short, sharp breaths, “How long was I out?”

“A little more than an hour.” His eyes met her gaze, “I need to show you something.”

She furrowed her brows in confusion, wincing at the pain moving her face caused, and she wondered what kind of bruises were currently painted across her skin. Going by the look on Ben’s face, the painting wasn’t very pretty. Waves of sympathy that wasn’t hers washed over her, and she found herself looking away, “What is it?”

Ben shifted, and slowly removed himself from the bed. She turned to look at him then, taking in another sharp breath of pain that he clearly felt if the falter in his step was anything to go by. As if suffering this pain wasn’t bad enough, he had to feel it, too. Most of the time she was grateful to the bond that kept them constantly in contact with one another, but on days like this she sometimes wished it wasn’t there. He shouldn’t have to feel what she was feeling. 

Taking in a deep breath, Ben slowly approached the window, and raised his hand to it and Rey felt more puzzled than ever until he twitched his fingers, and the window began to open. The hinges groaned, covering up Rey’s shocked gasp as the window slowly opened, and the blizzard raging outside filled their cell. She barely even noticed the cold, nor the snowflakes that were now pelting Ben as he opened the window all the way, the pane sliding all the way out to meet the wall beside it as she watched in awe. 

He’d done it. The impossible. The thing they’d been working together for days to achieve. A weak smile rose to her face as she watched him close the window now before too much snow could fill their cell. The wind whipped his hair into disarray as the breeze finally stopped, and the window closed. Ben turned to her with a look of pride on his face, the same feeling that was currently flooding into her through their bond, diminishing her pain just that small, little bit. “You did it.”

“No,” he said, walking back toward the bed, and kneeling down beside it, reaching out a hand to gingerly caress her cheek, “ _ You _ did it.”

“What?”

“You lashed out again when they tortured you yesterday, you opened the window first. Somehow… You unblocked us. We’re back, Rey, we’re back.”

She beamed at him as best she could, trying not to let her injuries bother her too much as she reached up a hand, and cupped his jaw, bringing his lips to hers in a gentle, brief kiss. “We need to go, then, we’ve got to get out of here as fast as we can.”

Ben nodded, then he looked at the palm that was resting on her cheek, and curiosity filled the bond, “I want to try something.”

A silence passed between them as she wondered just what it was he wanted to try, when she suddenly felt the light side of the force swirling around her, ghosting over her injured features as Ben’s eyes closed before her. There was a feeling of warmth flooding through her body, and her pain slowly began to fade, but not entirely. She quickly realized that he was trying to heal her, but it didn’t seem like it was working as his face contorted with frustration. 

After a moment, the force stopped flowing through her, and Ben was nearly panting beside her, looking as though he’d taken some sort of hit to his gut that took the air from his lungs. He looked how she currently felt every time she took sweet oxygen into her battered body. He looked exhausted, but as she slowly moved her jaw, she realized that whatever he’d done had worked--in some degree, at least. There was still some pain when she moved the lower half of her face, but not as much as there had been earlier. 

“I think it worked,” she told him, hoping to wipe the hopeless look from his face, “It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” 

He shook his head, “Not well enough.” He removed his hand from her cheek, and ran it through his disheveled hair, “It’s been so long since I’ve done that… Luke only taught me how to do it once, and back then it was to heal a scrape on someone’s knee. Not…” He gestured vaguely to the severe injuries she’d obtained just under two hours earlier, a sigh escaping his lips while his eyes ventured down to her broken ribcage. 

Taking one of his hands in hers, Rey forced him to look back at her face, “Ben, I don’t care if you fix it completely. All you need to do is make it less painful so I can move. We’ve got to get out of here before they make this worse.”

Ben hesitated, but he gave her a nod, then he lifted his free hand, and pressed it gently against her broken rib--though she was fully aware that it might have been more than one that had broken. The touch sent a rush of pain stinging through her body, and she grunted loudly as his palm came in contact with her bruised flesh. He muttered an apology, then she felt the force swirl around her once more. That same feeling of warmth from earlier resonated within her battered form, and she felt a wave of peace washing over her. 

She watched Ben as he worked, a bead of sweat beginning to form at his temple as he used all of his focus to try and heal the most severe of her injuries. The light Ben Solo was summoning from within himself was slowly snuffing out her pain, but the effort was causing Ben pain of his own that she could feel in the form of a pounding headache. 

“Ben.” He didn’t seem to hear her, too deep in his concentration for her voice to pierce his thoughts. “ _ Ben. _ ”

This time, he stopped, and as he came out of his trance, he was panting hard, reminding her faintly of how their day had begun. Oh, how that seemed like a lifetime ago. “How do you feel?” 

Rey took in a deep breath, testing his efforts, and wincing from pain a second later. “Not much better, but it’ll have to do. We need to talk to Finn, we’re getting out of here now, today.”

Ben looked like he was going to protest, but she gave him a stern glance, and he slowly nodded as he got up off his knees, and walked over to the door. “Finn!” he called out, and at first the usage of his name had Rey wincing, but then she remembered. They weren’t going to be there for much longer. It soon wouldn’t matter who heard their names. After seventeen days in the prison, they were going to be free. 

Not wanting to miss the conversation, Rey mentally prepared herself to stand. She breathed in slowly, and as she let it out, she clenched her jaw shut to keep from screaming, and pushed herself into a sitting position. The pain was stinging, but she pushed through it, ignoring the concerned looks Ben was giving her as he felt the pain rush through him, too. Once the initial sting subsided, she swung her legs over the bed as Ben called out for Finn once again. Taking in another slow breath, she pressed on, pushing herself up onto her legs with a strangled gasp of pain, and stumbling directly into Ben’s waiting arms. 

For a few seconds, she let herself rely on Ben to keep her standing as the pain coursed through her. She let out a low groan that she hoped no one else could hear, then she slowly looked up at Ben. His eyes were full of the same concern that was smothering her through the bond, but the longer she remained on her feet, the less it hurt to stand. She just couldn’t breathe in too deeply, or shift her torso too much. Walking was something she suspected would be easier than sitting or standing. 

“I’m fine,” she promised Ben, lifting the hand on her good side to caress his cheek, then they turned back to the cell window, where Finn was still nowhere to be found. 

“Finn!” Ben called out again. 

All he received in response was a disgruntled, “Shut the hell up!” from the woman in the cell next to them, her accent reminiscent of Rey’s own as she screamed at them, “You’ve caused enough trouble today.”

“That’s our friend, and we need him. Why don’t you shut up?” Rey asked bitterly, the days she’d spent in the prison combined with her pain wearing on her heavily. She didn’t have the time to be nice. 

“You won’t do your friend any good if you’re shouting. You’ll bring the guards right to us.”

Before Rey could come up with a retort, Ben’s hand rested on her shoulder, “She’s right, we need to try something else…”

“Like what?”

Ben thought for a moment, his contemplative emotions mingling with hers as they thought over what to do instead of call out for Finn, who still hadn’t shown up at the window. In all likelihood, he’d been rendered unconscious as well from their latest beating, and unlike Rey, he still hadn’t woken up. She was fairly certain the only thing keeping her awake was her own pain. 

“I have an idea,” Ben said after a moment, then he looked down at the door handle, “We need to practice opening these.”

Rey’s eyes widened. He wasn’t seriously suggesting that they go across the hall and into another cell before they had their escape plan finalized, was he? He had to be absolutely mad to try. Sure, they had the force again, but just how strong was it now? Could they really take on all the guards at once if they came for them again? “Ben, we’re not ready.”

“No, not yet,” he said in agreement, “We just need to communicate with Finn, tell him what’s going on. Finalize the plan.”

She looked at him hesitantly, then she sighed, and pressed her face up against the bars, “How long do the rest of you have until dinner?” she asked their rather grumpy neighbor, “Or has it already passed?”

“It’s an hour away,” the woman replied, “Why? What the hell are you about to do? If you cause anymore trouble…”

“We won’t, we’re just trying to talk to our friend.”

There was a pause before she spoke again, “You’re trying to escape again, aren’t you?”

“I…”

“Half this prison’s tried, and half this prison’s suffered your fate, some to the death. What’s got you willing to risk your damn lives to get out of here?”

“If they learn who we are, our side loses the war.”

Another pause occurred as silence fell over the hall, then the woman spoke up again, “You’re resistance, aren’t you?”

Rey didn’t answer. Instead, she looked back at Ben, and gave him the nod to go ahead and try whatever he was planning, “You come back here as soon as you tell him everything, alright?”

“Alright,” he repeated, then the two of them took a step back, and he raised his hand to the door. She watched as Ben slowly unlocked it with the force, then opened it wide, the hinges creaking slightly. They could only hope the swirling blizzard winds outside had covered up the noise. 

Slowly, cautiously, Ben peered out into the hallways, making sure it was clear before he all but tip toed over to the other side, and peered into Finn’s cell while Rey shut their own cell door behind him. Whatever he saw couldn’t have been good, if the frenzied, rushed throwing open of the door through the force was anything to go by.

“What the hell is he doing?” she heard one of their neighbors cell mates ask, barely registering a male voice replying that he didn’t know as her mind swirled with worst case scenarios for what Ben could’ve seen in that cell. A thousand things popped into her head. She feared that somehow they’d managed to kill Finn, that he was lying dead on the floor from his injuries. Or that he’d fallen into some sort of coma like he had on starkiller, only this time he’d never wake up. 

“Ben?” She had to know, she had to know what happened to him right then. “Ben, is he alright?”

A tense, heart pounding moment passed as Ben didn’t respond to her, and she feared the worst before Ben finally appeared at Finn’s window, and he gave her a nod, “He’s waking up, hold on,” he said before disappearing again.

All Rey could do was wait as she leaned against the door, straining to hear the hushed whispers of their conversation once Finn woke up. She knew what Ben was telling Finn, and Finn had already established where they needed to escape from… All they needed to do was figure out where Poe was, and they were set to leave depending on how much Rey’s injury acted up- and how badly Finn himself was injured. 

Several more minutes passed before both Ben and Finn appeared at the window, and she let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding, wincing in pain as her ribs protested. Once the wave of pain had passed, she took a good look at Finn, assessing what little she could see of him for injuries. Finn looked worse off than she did, face wise. He had four cuts compared to her three, and one of his eyes was swollen shut. As far as she knew- mostly judging by the lack of screaming from when he must’ve stood up- he hadn’t broken anything. He’d gotten lucky. 

“Finn, did he tell you everything?” she asked, trying to keep her statements ambiguous enough that if anyone was listening they wouldn’t know about the details of their escape plan. They weren’t about to risk that happening again. 

“Yeah, he told me,” Finn replied, his voice hoarse, “Only thing we don’t know is…” His eyes wandered cautiously up and down the halls, “Poe.”

The corners of Rey’s mouth twitched in a sympathetic smile, “Ben and I are going to work on that, you stay awake, be ready.”

“I can try. No promises.”

Ben looked at him then, “We won’t have time to wake you up once we get moving,” he warned him, “You need to stay awake.”

Finn gave him a brief nod, then he and Ben exchanged a brief moment of almost awkward eye contact, one that showed the history between them. Rey knew what they both were thinking. They’d started as a stormtrooper and the right hand of the supreme leader, and now they were almost amicable allies. It was truly startling how far they’d come in these seventeen days. Every time Rey thought about the changes, it amazed her. 

Giving Finn an awkward, close-mouthed smile, Ben backed away, and a moment later, the cell door opened. Again, Ben looked carefully up and down the hall before he dashed back over to his and Rey’s side, and quickly opened their door, too. He closed it gently behind him, then he locked it once more as Rey wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a loose hug. 

When Ben moved to return the hug, one of his arms accidentally pressed into her bad side, and she grimaced from the pain. He quickly pulled away from the embrace, whispering another sorry under his breath as he moved to sit on the bed. Rey elected to remain standing since the effort of bending over was one that now brought her immense amounts of agony. 

“Now we rescue Poe,” she said, listening to Ben hum his assent before she began to pace the room. 

It took them all the way through the remainder of the hour and when the guards gave out and retrieved the other prisoners’ dinner plates for either of them to come up with a worthy solution. Ben initially suggested that they go through the prison searching until they found him, but that was quickly scrapped as being utterly ridiculous and time wasting. He then suggested that they try reaching out to him through the force, but Rey reasoned that if they could barely heal each other, they would have one hell of a time trying to reach out to a friend through the force. 

But that idea led to another. What if they could reach out to someone whose location they did know? Rey’s mind snapped back to their beginnings, when Ben had first interrogated her as Kylo Ren, and she’d been left alone in that room until she’d been able to convince a stormtrooper to let her go through the force-

That was it. They were going to have to pull that same stunt with a guard. They were going to have to get the guard to tell them where Poe was, and she had a feeling that it would work, that despite their still somewhat limited usage of the force, they’d get him back. 

“Ben, what if we coerced it out of them?” she asked after they’d been in complete silence for a long period of time. 

He looked up at her curiously, his eyes filling with a small twinge of hope once again, “Are you sure it would work?”

She shrugged, regretting the motion as it jostled her rib slightly, and she waited until the pain subsided before she spoke again, “I’m not, but how can we be sure of anything until we actually try it, Ben?”

There was another minute of pure tension as they stared into each other’s eyes. Fear, hope, love, and a whole other wide range of emotions were drifting in the bond. She wasn’t sure which emotions were hers and which ones were Ben’s. The only thing that was certain was the uncertainty that had followed them since the moment they’d been captured. All she knew was they had to try. 

At the end of it, Ben stood up, and crossed the short distance between them, setting his hands on her shoulders as he pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to her forehead. She closed her eyes as she leaned into his touch, and once he pulled away, she leaned against his broad chest as his head came to rest on top of hers. 

“I guess we’re doing this, then?” she asked. 

“I guess so.”

A shuddering breath left Ben’s chest, and he slowly pulled away, one of his hands taking hers, and lacing their fingers together before they stepped back towards the door. She looked up at him, “Do you want to summon the guard, or should I?”

“Let me do it. Just in case this doesn’t go our way.”

“Ben, we don’t need both of us incapacitated.”

“Rey,” he said softly, his voice reminding her so much of his proposal in the throne room. She could almost see the embers raining down around them from the fire she’d started as he looked at her with nothing but sincerity in his eyes as he added another word that had her flashing back to the start, “Please.”

A lump formed in her throat, but she nodded, stepping back to allow him full access to the window as he called out for the guard, his voice booming through the corridors. 

“Are you insane?” one of their neighbors- it sounded like one of the women in the cell next door- asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

Rey shushed her, “Please, don’t say anything,” she begged, but she didn’t have time to find out if the woman would agree to be silent, the two guards that always marched down the hall whenever a prisoner asked for something were marching down the halls already. 

Ben looked back at her one last time, gesturing for her to come forward as the guards approached, their horrid, masked appearances coming into view a second later. Rey wasn’t sure just which guards were there, she wasn’t sure if it was either of the men who’d brutally beaten her and Finn the day prior, or if it was one of the others who’d restrained Ben as he was forced to watch. Either way, she felt a twinge of fear pass through them both as they exchanged eye contact with the guards, though through their masks it was impossible to tell just where their eyes were. 

“What do you want?” one of the guards asked gruffly, hand reaching for the cuffs pinned to his hips. 

The force hummed around them as Ben pressed his face to the window, “Tell us where you’re keeping our friend,” he said firmly, his gaze full of intent as it bore down upon both of the guards currently standing before them. 

The guards burst into a round of raucous laughter that lasted for several seconds before the one that had spoken to Ben a minute earlier shook his head, “I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”

Rey stepped forward this time, “Tell us where you’re keeping our friend,” she demanded, her gaze piercing into the guards as well. 

This time, the guards hesitated before the other guard replied with, “No.” But something in his voice made him sound almost like he wasn’t sure. He sounded like he wanted nothing more than to leave, but something was compelling him to stay right in that spot. She looked at Ben out of the corner of her eye, observing the smirk that had started to form on his face. It was working. 

“Where are you keeping our friend?” she asked.

“Tell us where he is,” Ben said at the same time, the force swirling rapidly around them as the guards finally broke. 

“He’s being kept in the interrogation chamber.” The guard’s voice trembled as he spoke-which, Rey had to admit, was immensely satisfying to hear after all the shit he’d done to them- like he was fearful of what was happening to him, “He’s strapped to the table.”

“Have they been torturing him further?” Rey pressed further into his mind, willing him to surrender his knowledge to her, “Has he told them anything else?”

“No, they’ve left him alone.”

“What has he told them?”

“He’s a resistance commander. He’s a pilot. Hasn’t said anything else. They’re only keeping him cause they think he’ll break further.”

She looked beside her to find that Ben’s smirk was a full blown grin, “Now forget this happened, and go back to your post,” he told them, then the guards blinked like they were coming out of a trance, and they walked away, leaving Ben and Rey victorious in their cell. 

As soon as the guards left, they took a step back, and Rey laughed as lightly as she could, “We actually did it,” she breathed, “We’re going to be free.” She could see it. It was right around the corner. By the time she fell asleep that night, she would be sleeping comfortably without the fear of capture or torture. She’d finally get to begin to heal after all she’d been through- they all would. 

“You’re mad, both of you,” the woman in the neighboring cell muttered, “Absolutely mad.”

“Please, don’t say anything,” Rey begged her, hoping that her pleas hadn’t fallen on deaf ears. 

“Wasn’t planning to. I’m…” She fell silent again as if considering something, “Good luck… I hope you make it.”

Rey smiled, even though the other woman couldn’t see it, “We’ll come back,” she promised, “We’ll rescue you, all of you.”

Another moment of silence, then the woman’s voice came again, though it was just a hair’s breadth louder than the howling blizzard outside, “You’re mad.”

Her smile reached her eyes as she turned and looked at Ben, who was staring at her in mild shock, “Ben, we have to come back for them. We can’t leave people here- some of them  _ our _ people- to suffer.” 

Ben looked apprehensive for a few seconds, then he nodded, and his hands caressed her cheeks as he pulled her in for a passionate, yet surprisingly gentle kiss. Rey responded to the kiss in earnest, reaching up the arm on her good side, and running her fingers through his hair--something she suspected she’d never tire of doing. They held the kiss until Rey had to pull away for breath, loathing the way her injury made her need oxygen more quickly than she usually did. 

“Are you alright?” His voice was full of concern as he looked her injured body up and down, making sure he hadn’t caused her any more pain. 

“I’m fine.”

“Rey, it’s going to hurt, climbing out the window… Not to mention if we have to fight the guards…”

She shook her head, “We have the force now,” she reminded him, “Nothing can stop us, trust me.”

“I trust you,” he replied, and again she was reminded of just how much had changed. She wasn’t too happy about the way it had happened, but the changes brought about in Ben Solo in the past seventeen days had been an absolute treasure. The resistance was going to be in for one hell of a shock when they got back, and not only that, but one hell of a victory. 

“Should we tell Finn, then?” 

He nodded, “It’s time. It’s  _ past _ time.”

Together, they turned back to their cell door. Rey lifted her left arm, and with a wild grin on her face, she opened the door with the force, not caring about the mild squeak on the hinges as she and Ben walked confidently across the hall. She peered into Finn’s cell, delighted to see that he was already on his feet, and he too was staring out his window. 

This time, she let Ben do the honors, watching as he reached out a hand, and opened Finn’s door as well. A moment later, their rather bruised friend joined them in the hall, a hint of a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth as he looked between them, “It’s time?”

Rey nodded, “Let’s go,” she said, then the three of them marched down the hallway, ready to take on anything that got in the way of their escape. 


	17. Rescue Mission Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Rey,” Ben said softly, his voice sounding like it was going to break as he wiped the hair from her face, and her breathing finally started to recover.
> 
> She gave him a nod, and the weight in Finn’s arms lessened as she stepped out of their arms, her face was still too pale as she looked up at the door that still waited for them at the end of the hallway. “We can worry about me later,” she said, “We need to get out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN. I HAD A GOOD TIME.

The prison had never been more silent as they snuck through the halls. The blizzard outside had faded to background noise, their ears tuned only to the impending march of footsteps, or the call of a gruff voice as they made their agonizingly slow walk to the torture chamber where they’d been told Poe was being kept.

Midway through the journey, the lights in the prison suddenly dimmed, and Finn flinched before remembering that they always shut off at this time of night. Those dim, yellow lights always shoved the prison into almost complete blackness, save for the tiny bulbs that lined the walls periodically to provide some sort of emergency lighting in the night. Well, that and the increasing presence of a silvery looking daylight that had begun to filter in through their windows.

The glow they cast upon the halls as he, Ben, and Rey moved quietly down them to was far too eerie for his liking. The shadows it created on the hall—Ben’s shadow particularly threatening with how tall he stood—made him feel like something was about to jump out at them on all sides. He was set fully on edge as they approached a corner, and Ben peered cautiously around it before giving him and Rey a nod.

They’d come upon another row of cells, this one longer than the last, and Finn knew they were nearly there. This was the last hallway they’d always pass whenever the guards took them to that very same torture chamber. The hallway where they’d have to avoid looking at the other prisoners through their cell windows, not wanting anyone else to see the pain in their eyes as they walked past—the _fear_ in their eyes.

It was the same fear that was probably still reflected in his eyes even then, his anxieties running amok in his brain. A part of him feared that they’d done worse to Poe than they’d let on. After all, Ben and Rey had only asked them where he was and if he was alive. He thought of that future that Poe had promised him the night before they’d first tried to escape the prison. That first kiss that just couldn’t wait until they left, not knowing if they were going to live or die.

He was more grateful than ever for the moments they’d been able to have together now. The previous day—their last peaceful day— they had spent lying around in their bed, stealing more slow, languid kisses that became memories Finn cherished. A part of him had wanted to take it further, but once again, Poe insisted that they waited until they got outside of the prison. He’d wondered vaguely if their counterparts in the cell had decided the same thing, but they both heard some faint noises after breakfast that suggested they had indeed elected not to wait. And for all of Poe’s jokes, he looked like he was questioning that decision as they tuned out the ever so faint, almost unnoticeable sounds of Ben and Rey in their cell.

Finn looked forward to never seeing this place and it’s drab, brown walls ever again. To never seeing those heinously evil men who’d brought them in repeatedly for torture until finally they’d broken one of them, and nearly broken the others.

In front of him, Rey was walking fine enough despite the injury he’d been told she obtained in the beating, but he could tell from the way she was breathing that every step took three times the effort it usually did. Her teeth were clenched, her face nearly white as a sheet, but she pressed on nonetheless. Occasionally she’d receive worried looks from Ben, and concerned, silent communiques of “are you okay,” in the form of a gentle hand on her upper arm. She’d nod as Finn watched, then Ben’s hand would disappear, and he would once again take up the lead while he maintained the rear.

As they walked slowly down the hall, doing their best not to make any noises, something occurred to Finn. They’d gone a long way from their cell, and yet they hadn’t run into any guards yet. He was open to believing that he didn’t quite know how things worked with them once the planet’s excuse for a night begun, but another part of him feared that something more sinister was at work as they began to reach the end of the hall.

His suspicions were confirmed when they rounded the corner that led them to the torture chamber. He could see its door at the end of the hall, cold, menacing, and covered in dried blood. Standing between them and it, however, were a group of ten guards with their blasters at the ready.

Finn swallowed nervously, then he looked to Ben and Rey. If they were also anxious about the encounter, they didn’t show it. They simply stared down the guards for a moment, and neither side spoke as a tension built between them. This was going to end badly. No matter which way Finn played it through his head, it ended in blood and tears.

Yet there was calm in Rey’s voice when she finally spoke, raising a hand in front of her, “Let us leave peacefully, and we won’t harm you,” she said, her voice not even wavering in the slightest as she trained her eyes firmly on the men in front of her.

The guards didn’t respond, not with words, at least. All Finn heard was the sound of a blaster going off, and his heart nearly stopped before he realized the bolt was suspended in mid air. His eyes flicked to Rey in awe, though he didn’t have much time to process it as she shouted, “Finn, get down!” and all hell broke loose.

Finn hurriedly ducked to the ground, keeping close to the wall as he watched his force using friends battle the guards. The blaster bolt Rey had suspended in the air flew back into the guard that had fired it, and with a scream of agony, he collapsed to the floor. As his blaster slid away from his hands, the other nine guards that remained advanced on Ben and Rey, firing their blasters away only to have the bolts deflected at every turn.

Once again Finn’s heart stopped when a bolt came too close to Rey, and she had to swerve on her bad side to avoid it. The resulting cry of pain had his heart breaking for her, but she didn’t stop there, and mercifully the sound hadn’t distracted Ben either. Rey responded to the guard’s attack by throwing him against the wall, not bothering to check whether he remained conscious after his head slammed harshly into it. Finn could see a small, but evident trail of blood on the wall where he’d collided with it. As the guard laid limp on the floor, he wondered if the man was even _alive_ after that.

Another guard narrowly missed Finn as he, too was smashed against the wall, this time by Ben--though the action was performed by his foot as he kicked him away versus Rey’s surprise force attack. This guard didn’t fall unconscious, though, and he was quickly back on his feet ready to go in with only his fists. It was then that Finn noticed the guard’s blaster had fallen beside him.

Seizing the opportunity, Finn grabbed the blaster just as the man was preparing to put Ben in a choke hold from behind. He pulled the trigger, firing straight into his head, a grim smile on his face as the body fell to the floor, and Ben gave him a quick, appreciative glance as he flung another guard against the wall.

There were just three guards left by that point, and once Finn had a blaster, the remaining three guards went down quickly in varying stages between unconsciousness and death. Rey sent one of the three flying into the ceiling, grasping at her side immediately after as she leaned against the wall. Ben slammed another’s head into the floor, and Finn shot the last one before they rushed to be by her side.

Rey’s breathing was sharp and short as she leaned against the wall, looking like she was trying her hardest to take a breath, but failing every time. She had paled again, and within seconds she was leaning on Ben and Finn to stand, looking like she was seconds from passing out. 

“Rey,” Ben said softly, his voice sounding like it was going to break as he wiped the hair from her face, and her breathing finally started to recover.

She gave him a nod, and the weight in Finn’s arms lessened as she stepped out of their arms, her face was still too pale as she looked up at the door that still waited for them at the end of the hallway. “We can worry about me later,” she said, “We need to get out of here.”

Ben and Finn looked at her, then at each other like they didn’t quite believe her, but said nothing as they at long last walked down the remainder of the hallway towards the door. His grip tightened on the blaster in his left hand as they moved.

There had always been a bad energy emanating from that room. Every time Finn had been led in there he could sense the room before he could see it, but on that day the energy was particularly dark. It felt as if the already dim lights had somehow gotten dimmer as they approached, and he knew by the way Ben and Rey looked at each other as they prepared to unlock it that they could feel it, too.

A tense silence washed over them as Ben reached his hand out, and unlocked them door, which subsequently swung open with a high pitched, drawn out squeak. There was another pause, but realizing they had no time to waste, the three rushed into the room.

It was nearly black with darkness inside, except for one scarce, green light that illuminated the torture table and the man lying on it, still strapped down though it had been hours since his interrogation. Finn rushed forward without a second thought, calling out Poe’s name as he went.

The commander was mercifully awake, though his answering, “Finn?” was weakened, then muffled entirely by Finn’s lips capturing his in a crushing kiss as he rejoiced in finally seeing him after all those hours. The force of it nearly caused him to drop the blaster, but he managed to keep his grip on it.

The kiss was all too brief. They didn’t have time for more, they had to get out of there within minutes. Poe gave him a grin as one of their friends undid the bonds holding him with the force, then he sat up, and wrapped his arms around Finn in a bone crushing embrace. “Glad you finally showed up.”

“Sorry we took so long.” Finn looked back at Ben and Rey, watching as the latter began to lean on the former once again. “We had a bit of a disagreement with the guards,” he said as he helped Poe to his feet.

The commander looked confused as he looked from Finn to Ben and Rey, then he blinked a few times, and Finn knew he was seeing the bruises decorating their faces for the first time. He probably looked worse than Rey, she’d taken the worst of it to her chest and stomach, but he’d taken it to his face for the most part. He was still mostly seeing out of one eye, and his head ached like it never had before.

“What the hell happened to you guys?” Poe asked, his voice full of concern.

“They decided to torture them outside of the cell, they beat them senseless, I’ll explain more later, right now, we’ve got to get out of here,” Ben replied, gesturing back to the door with his head.

“Right.” Poe’s face slowly began to regain its grin, then he took Finn’s free hand, and the four of them rushed out of the room and back out into the hallway.

Their escape halted temporarily when Poe saw the bodies they’d dropped, the blood spattered on the walls and the floor from their battle with the guards. He looked to Finn, then back at Ben and Rey, who kept their eyes trained firmly ahead of them as they stepped over the guards bodies.

Finn remained weary as they walked, knowing it was possible that any of them could be alive and just waiting to strike them at the worst possible moment. Thankfully, none of the guards rose, and they made it back into the long corridor of cells in peace. They crept back down them just as silently as they’d walked down them in the first place. Occasionally one of their fellow prisoners would be pressed up against their window, likely curious as to what commotion had just gone on at the end of it, but mostly they kept in the dark again. They likely feared that they’d been the losers of that battle and the guards would be coming after them if they stepped out of line again.

They made it to the end of the hallway without anyone saying a word to them, and Finn felt his shoulders relax as they made the turn onto the next hallway. It was then that they stopped. They had a choice here between two escape routes. One would lead them to freedom from the hangar, though that was likely to be guarded intensely by dozens of guards if not more, and the other would lead them to the restrooms, where they would escape through the window and have to battle the blizzard outside.

The four exchanged a nervous look, each of them wondering what the others would choose for their escape route. Before, when they’d thought they’d be making the escape directly from their cells, it had seemed most logical to try it through the restrooms. But now that they were actually making their great escape, none of them were so sure. Even if there were guards positioned outside the hangar, it seemed that Ben and Rey would be able to handle it just fine, and Finn now had a blaster in his hand.

He began to wonder if the restroom window escape was truly the most logical. Especially with Rey’s broken rib… Scaling a building seemed a bit of a risk that may have been unnecessary to take. A silent conversation went down between the four, then Ben tugged on Rey’s hand, and they took the path toward the hangar. The guards seemed like a safer bet than a sheer drop, since they’d already taken them on and won a minute earlier.

“Are we sure about this?” Poe asked beside him, sounding more nervous than he had before.

“No,” Finn replied, as they took another turn down a shorter hall with no cells. They were getting closer and closer to the hangar, to the end of the line, and to their final battle. “We’re not sure about any of this.”

Before they knew it, the hangar was upon them, the familiar cold spot they’d always used to pass colder now than ever before as they stared down the hall at the setup of a good two maybe two and a half dozen guards outside. They froze at the end of the hall, looking down the business end of a good thirty blasters that looked equally as threatening as the men holding them. Something told Finn that they weren’t exactly set to stun either. This time, the guards didn’t care if they lived.

“Everybody ready?” Poe asked, but no one answered. They didn’t have time to. Once again, the guards fired the first shot, which was quickly blocked and sent back to them by Rey, her outstretched hand quickly forcing a wave of them stumbling back to the floor.

The other guards advanced on them before Finn could blink. Blaster fire rained down upon them, being mostly blocked by Rey and Ben. Finn managed to take down a guard as he came at them with his blaster, making an almost perfect headshot.

The guard fell to the floor with a dull thud, and Poe was kneeling to the ground a second later to pick up his blaster before he too began to fire at the guards. Finn and Poe walked into the fray together, taking down the guards with either their blasters or their fists as they went. Beside him, Rey snatched a blaster out of a guards hand with one hand, and shoved him against the wall with the other using the force, not even batting an eye when she shot the blaster into his chest.

Another guard came at Ben on Finn’s right, and he simply shoved him in Finn’s direction. Finn got off two blaster shots into the guard’s head, then he quickly turned his blaster on another that came at him from behind. He fired another shot into that one’s stomach, and one more into his head for good measure as the guard went to the ground.

There were still at least fifteen guards surrounding them, but the battle was quickly shifting in their direction. A smile grew on Finn’s features as he watched a guard get force lifted into the high, domed ceiling of the prison, then casually dropped back to the floor. He took out another three guards as he came down, likely not surviving the fall. He looked between Ben and Rey, wondering which one of them had pulled off the impressive maneuver, but he didn’t have too much time to think on it.

Yet another guard was coming at him from behind, only this one was quickly shot down by Poe, who gave him a wicked grin as he ducked from a round of blaster fire, tugging Finn down with him. They stayed down for a moment, letting their force using friends deflect the blasts, then they got up once the air above them cleared some, and back to back Finn and Poe began to fire shots at their captors.

There were just ten guards now. Eight after two ran away shouting for backup as they rushed down the halls. Finn fired a few shots after them, but both missed. It didn’t matter that much, though. They would finish off the other eight in a matter of minutes. At least, he hoped they would.

A sudden, sharp pain erupted from Finn’s shoulder, and he cried out as a blast of blue ripped through the air in front of him, causing him to nearly drop his blaster. He turned to find a guard preparing to fire another round at him, but before he could squeeze the trigger again, Poe fired a shot into his head, and there were now seven guards left.   

Finn looked down at his shoulder as the battle went on, coming closer to a close with every passing second. Blood was staining presumably both sides of his shirt, though he could only see the crimson spilling out on the front. The metallic scent of his own blood filled the air around him, and though he suspected the wound wouldn’t be fatal, he knew that it was going to hinder him in finishing this fight.

Luckily, it appeared that his unexpected injury had spurred his friends on, and he watched as Poe shot three guards down leaving only four more to Ben and Rey. One of the remaining four ran away from the battle, attempting to do what the others had done earlier by running, but he was quickly stopped when Poe shot him dead, his blaster shot still striking him in the back of the head from the far end of the hall.

Finn’s shoulder felt like it was on fire as he watched his friends pick off the final three guards, the last one collapsing to the ground with a groan from one of Ben’s punches, then he was silenced further as Ben fired a blaster shot into his head for good measure.

The second the last guard was dead, Poe was by Finn’s side, his hands pressing firmly down on the wound as he helped him to his feet, “Finn? Buddy you okay?”

The pain was immense, but it was still a far cry from what had been induced by the drug used to torture them. Finn gave him a firm nod, then gestured to the hangar doors, “We can worry about me later, let’s get out of here,” he said, looking between Poe and the others to try and assure them he was fine. He had to be fine. They couldn’t afford to be anything but fine. If Rey was still standing despite her rib having been broken for several hours on end, he could manage, too.

None of them looked convinced, but they pressed on anyway, rushing down the hall as fast as their legs would carry them to the hangar. Ben threw the doors open with the force, and just like ten days prior, they were back staring at the rows of ships belonging to either side.

“We need to pick one fast,” Ben said, beginning to move forward through the rows in a way that reminded Finn of their last escape attempt. He could only hope that nothing like that happened with this one. So far, they’d been lucky, but he had to wonder how much time they had before that luck ran out.

The others nodded, and they slowly began to fan out through the rows upon rows of ships, observing the spacecrafts getting bigger and bigger as they approached the rear—or was it the entrance—of the hangar. They went from the smaller x-wings and TIEs to ships the size of the Millenium Falcon or larger, and wound up in front of another freighter looking stunningly similar to Han Solo’s beloved ship.

Finn actually had to do a double take as he looked at it, the resemblance was almost _too_ uncanny. The difference between it and the Falcon, though, was this ship appeared to actually have been cleaned some time in the last decade.

He looked at the others, “This work for you guys?”

“The garbage will do,” Rey joked, and if it weren’t for the pain throbbing in his shoulder, Finn would’ve thrown his head back and laughed. Instead, the two shared a giggle, earning them odd looks from Ben and Poe.

“It’s going to be hell maneuvering this out of here,” Poe said as he looked up at the freighter, then at the other ships surrounding them. His gaze then fell on the shut doors at the near end of the hangar, the ones that they would have to maneuver the ship out of once they managed to get it into the air. “But I always did like a challenge.”

Finn wanted to say something in response, but he was interrupted by the sound of shouting outside the hangar. They were about to have company. They had to get on that ship and get out of there fast before even more guards came for them, and with how exhausted they all were, Finn didn’t want to test their luck at a third battle.

Ben and Poe, it seemed, were way ahead of him, the former of the two using the force to open the ship, which they found to have a ramp mechanism not unlike the Falcon, then they ushered Rey and Poe aboard. The four rushed down the ship’s corridors, searching for the ship’s cockpit desperately as the sounds of the guards approaching got louder and louder outside. It turned out that the ship’s resemblance to the one they knew so well went only as far as its exterior. On the inside, the ship was almost completely different. Some of the layouts were the same, but overall the ship twisted and turned in ways that the Falcon had never.

Eventually, they managed to find the cockpit, and Poe quickly slid into the pilot’s seat, and looked back at him, Rey, and Ben, “Rey, do you think you can co-pilot?”

She nodded, and moved to sit in the co-pilot’s seat, then she grimaced, and cried out in pain while her hands clutched at her right side. “I can’t,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “My rib’s broken,” she explained to Poe, “I can barely move.” She then backed away from the co-pilot’s seat, and leaned against the wall in the back of the small space.

Finn quickly followed suit as the pain from his shoulder grew even more intense, then they watched as Ben gave Poe a brief glance, and slid into the co-pilot’s seat. They maintained a stare for a moment, then a smile grew on Poe’s face as he began to bring the ship to life, “Alright, getting this thing in the air won’t be a big problem, but getting it out of here without killing us, that’s what I’m worried about.”

“Depending on what that door is made of we might be able to just smash through it,” Ben suggested, and Poe’s already broad grin grew even wider before he brought the ship into the air, and turned it slightly to the left so that they could see the doors.

The commander quirked an eyebrow at Ben, then he looked back at Finn and Rey, “You two better hang on to something, this might be bumpy,” he warned them.

Finn didn’t need to be told twice. He sat down in one of the other two seats that had been placed against either wall of the cockpit facing each other, and promptly held on for dear life on the back of Poe’s seat, watching as Rey did the same—but not without another grimace of pain— with Ben’s. Not even another second went by before Finn heard Poe engage the thrust, and they were zooming through the hangar. The entire ship shuddered for a second, but then Finn heard Poe’s whooping laughter, and even Ben chuckling with glee as they crashed through the doors, and out into the open space.

The sound of it was infectious, and Finn found himself joining in as he stood up, and looked out the window as the planet they’d been on for the past seventeen days rolled out beyond them. The surface was covered with snow, ice, and that odd maroon dirt, which was being pelted by the blizzard that continued to swirl around them. In front of them, they could see a lilac tinted sun just beginning to rise, creating a glow on the mountainous expanse before them that Finn would’ve found beautiful if this planet hadn’t been the source of so much torment for them.

Somewhere down below he could see a cliff side that ran for miles on the planet’s surface, likely the same one that ran right along the prison. It was covered in snow and ice, the lilac light of the ever so slowly rising sun beginning to reflect off of it in a way that any other time of day would likely be blinding, but in the first stages of morning light wasn’t so bad.

Finn wondered vaguely just how long this planet’s days and nights were. They’d spent most of their stay in the prison in the dark of the night. It had only been within the past few days that the sun had finally shown hints of wanting to rise. Wherever they were, the planet rotated agonizingly slowly. He’d seen planets make trips around their suns than it took this one to rotate around itself.  

Not that he particularly wanted to know that much about the planet, all he wanted was to be out of there, and after all this time he finally was.

“You know, I never thought I’d be piloting a ship with you of all people,” Poe joked to Ben in front of him, bringing Finn’s attention back into the cockpit.

Ben smirked, “Never thought I’d be piloting a ship with _you_ either.”

Another round of laughter was shared between the unexpected co-pilots, then Poe tipped the nose of the ship upward, and drove them into the expanse of space, “We need to get ready to get to light speed, I don’t want to give them the opportunity to shoot us down before we can get home.”

“Do we even know where we’re going?”

Poe paused, and looked briefly back at Finn and Rey. He knew exactly what his commander was thinking. They’d been gone for two and a half weeks. In all likelihood, the resistance had changed locations yet again. They’d already been at their old one for nearly a month when they’d left, and Leia was talking about moving somewhere else. Returning to their last known location was a good idea, but there was always the possibility that their people wouldn’t be there.

“It doesn’t matter,” Poe said after a minute, “We just need to go where they can’t follow us.”

Ben gave him a nod, “I’ll start doing calculations,” he replied, then he hurriedly got to work.

As the two set about piloting them to freedom, Finn leaned back against the wall, his gaze falling on Rey as his head met the cool, metallic surface, “Are you okay?” he asked.

She took in a short breath, and shook her head, “It’s getting worse,” she replied, the faintest sound of a wheeze in her voice, “I didn’t notice it as much when we were in there— adrenaline and all that—but now…” she tried to take a deep breath, but failed miserably, and instead she wheezed weakly, “Now I feel it. I… I’m exhausted.”

Finn reached across the space between them, and with his good arm, he took her hand, “Hey, we’re almost free, you’ll get help soon.”

She gave him a weak smile, and squeezed his hand, “So will you,” she replied, her face growing pale once again. 

Eyes filled with concern, Finn looked back at the pilots sitting in front of them. They’d almost figured out their jump to lightspeed, they were almost free. He just hoped that Rey’s injuries weren’t more severe than they’d initially thought, that she wouldn’t be lost before they made it home. She was tough, and he knew that she’d probably survived worse, but he couldn’t help the fear in his heart as he watched her struggling to breathe properly. He looked over at Ben, observing that the other man also appeared to have a slight grimace about his features, and he knew that Ben was feeling the pain of it, too.

Before he could voice his worries, the ship lurched, and Finn leaned forward again to see the stars in front of them turned into streaks of white as they entered lightspeed, and Poe once again whooped loudly, even going so far as to offer up his hand in a high five toward a very surprised Ben Solo. A tiny smile rose to Finn’s face as he watched Ben’s palm slap against Poe’s then they leaned back in their respective seats, and watched out the window as they zoomed through hyperspace.

“Finn, what is it?” Rey asked, having not seen what had just happened.

He beamed at her, “They did it, Rey,” he said, squeezing her hand again, “We’re free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> high key I wish ao3 would stop giving me hell when I post this but oh well, it's here.


	18. Journey Through the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Three months ago you knocked me out in a fight,” Finn reminded him, “Now here you are healing my injuries from another one.”
> 
> Ben winced at the memory, “I’m sorry,” he said, unsure of what else he could possibly say to him. 
> 
> “I forgive you,” Finn replied, “We all do. Even Poe managed to. Hell, I think Poe even likes you now. Amazing what shared trauma can do for a person.”
> 
> They exchanged a laugh, then Ben stood, “I’m going to go get Rey. Are you…?”
> 
> Finn nodded, “I’m fine, go ahead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel the need to inform you all that at one point I tried to write, "Darting" but my phone kept autocorrecting it to "farting," so when you come upon that word, just know... It originally said "farting." I hope this knowledge has made your day better.

Once they were in hyperspace, Ben let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and looked back at Rey and Finn. It was then that Rey’s exhaustion and pain hit him in full force, the adrenaline from their escape already wearing off. She was pale and sweating again, her jaw clenched shut to keep from screaming. 

He looked at Poe, “Do you think you can take it from here?” He asked, looking at the two wounded people in the back seats. 

Poe caught on very quickly to what Ben was saying, and gave him a nod, not having to say a word in response for him to know that he was okay to leave. Giving Poe a grateful smile, Ben climbed out of the co-pilot’s seat, and knelt down by Rey as she sat in her seat groaning in pain. “Rey, can you move?”

She slowed her breathing, and shook her head, “No, no I… I can’t.” Her voice was weakened, and through their bond he could feel her sheer exhaustion. She’d exerted herself too much in the prison, the two battles and the escape itself had compromised her already terrible state. She needed to heal and rest, but they were pretty far out from the resistance. They didn’t even know where they were. 

He probably could try his hand at force healing her again, but he wasn’t sure if it’d work any better outside of the prison than it did in. One thing was for sure, both she and Finn needed to lie down and not overwhelm themselves in the cockpit. 

Ben leaned forward, and pressed a gentle kiss to Rey’s forehead, “I’ll come back for you in a minute,” he said, then he turned to Finn, “Can you move?”

Finn nodded, and slowly rose to his feet from where he’d been sitting. The action made him grimace slightly, but it was nothing on the searing pain that crossed Rey’s features half the time she moved. Ben looked him over, making sure he wasn’t bleeding too severely or wobbling on his knees, then he opened the cockpit’s door, “We need to find bunks. Poe?”

“Yeah?”

“Keep an eye on Rey.”

“Can do.”

Ben gave him a nod as he held the cockpit door open for Finn, then once he was inside, Ben leaned down by Rey, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, “I’ll be right back,”

“Okay,” she replied, her voice small as she leaned back against the seat. Ben’s heart broke a little having to leave her again, but he pressed on in his task, and soon he and Finn were wandering through their stolen ship’s corridors once again. 

It didn’t take them long to find the bunks, they were able to find them just two doors down from the cockpit. Ben vaguely remembered running past them earlier in their rush to get out of the prison, but he hadn’t noticed them much then.There were eight of them lined up along the walls, one upper and one lower, and there were two sets on each side of the hall. It was more than enough for what they needed. 

Finn’s face lit up with delight as he lowered himself into one of the bunks, groaning as his bad shoulder bumped against the bottom of the upper bunk. Concerned, Ben knelt down beside him, “Mind if I take a look at that?”

The other man looked somewhat apprehensive about it at first, but then he nodded, and sat up to give Ben a better view of his wound. As he sat down beside him, Ben observed that the bleeding seemed to have already stopped. The blood staining his shirt had already started to dry, even in the area immediately surrounding the injury. It would make sense, the blaster would’ve likely cauterized the wound instantly as it passed through him, almost healing Finn as it simultaneously maimed him.

He gently pried the shirt away with his fingers, and confirmed the suspicion that it had in fact stopped bleeding, though the action made Finn groan in pain. He apologized for hurting him further, then he looked at the wound again. Now that they were completely out of the guards’ grasp, perhaps force healing would be more effective. It was possible that if he could heal Finn, he could heal all of them. 

Ben cautiously pressed his palm against the wound, then he reached out for the force. This time, it swirled around him like it always had before. Like it had in the days before his capture. It hit him then that they were truly back as he poured his energy into healing Finn’s shoulder, and he knew there must’ve been some sort of stupid smirk on his face as he force healed his new friend. 

After a minute, Ben let up on the force, and looked at the wound to find that it had mostly closed up, and it didn’t look like the angry, gaping hole that had been there moments earlier. It would seem that he’d been at least somewhat effective in his efforts to heal Finn, but he’d tried to start with a major injury. It would likely be easier to treat the bruises decorating his face and body. 

With Finn looking at him in awe, Ben set to work on healing his face next, the force swirling around him once more as he worked to mend the wounds that had been inflicted upon the man sitting before him.

“Why are you doing this?” Finn asked after a moment of silence had fallen over them. 

“What do you mean?” Ben’s hand fell from his face, and he looked down at him curiously, relieved to find that he’d been able to reduce the swelling over Finn’s eye. The former stormtrooper was looking at him through both eyes now, a confusion—but not an unpleasant one—in them that he’d seen since he’d made the decision to turn. 

Finn swallowed, “Coming with us. Healing me. I’ve seen what you’ve done. Why are you doing this now?”

Ben sighed, then he sat down in the bunk on the opposite side of the hall from Finn’s, and shook his head, “I’ve never been fully one side or the other, Finn. Even when I was with Snoke, I…” he paused for a moment, remembering all of the terrible things he’d done under Snoke’s influence, things he’d believed to be what was best for the galaxy at the time, but all seemed horrid and wrong now. “I have a lot to make up for, Finn. I figured I’d better start now.”

“Three months ago you knocked me out in a fight,” Finn reminded him, “Now here you are healing my injuries from another one.”

Ben winced at the memory, “I’m sorry,” he said, unsure of what else he could possibly say to him. 

“I forgive you,” Finn replied, “We all do. Even Poe managed to. Hell, I think Poe even likes you now. Amazing what shared trauma can do for a person.”

They exchanged a laugh, then Ben stood, “I’m going to go get Rey. Are you…?”

Finn nodded, “I’m fine, go ahead.”

With one last glance at Finn to make sure he was okay, Ben stood, and walked back down the corridor towards the cockpit. As he walked he thought of the conversation he’d had just then with Finn. He’d realized how insane all of the changes of the past two and a half weeks were ages ago, but it still struck him every time that he’d gone into that prison as the supreme leader of the first order, and walked out as… just what was he to the resistance now?

Before he knew it, the cockpit door was upon him, and he walked in to find Poe and Rey engaged in a quiet conversation. “Do you think they’ll be on Crait?” She was asking him, “Leia mentioned something about heading to Crait next. Said they wouldn’t expect us to go back after…”

“It’s a good theory, and knowing Leia if we’ve gone missing she’ll be somewhere we’ll know while she waits for us to return.”

“I wonder what they think happened to us,” Rey murmured, picking at the hem of her prison shirt with her nails, “We were just supposed to exchange information. It wasn’t meant to be…”

“They might think we’re dead,” Ben said, the realization dawning on him as he spoke the words. 

Rey and Poe jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, neither of them noticing his silent entrance into the cockpit, “What makes you say that?” Poe asked. 

“By the time we get there, we’ll have been gone at least eighteen days. Eighteen days in a place where Rey and I were blocked from the force.”

The same realization quickly dawned on Rey’s features as well, “Leia,” She breathed, “She could feel you in the force… when you disappeared…”

“And at the same time as you three did…”

“It must’ve been like we were…”

“Dead,” Poe finished, then he ran a hand through his hair uncomfortably, “The resistance thinks we’re dead… shit…”

“What do we do?” Rey asked. 

Poe froze for a moment, then he began to work his magic on the ship, setting a course for wherever he thought was the best bet for the resistance’s location, “Try our best to find them. I’ll radio them—once I figure out how to work the radio— when I think we’re close, but not here. I don’t want the first order to know we’re free before they do.”

“Seems like a good plan,” Ben replied. 

An uncomfortable silence washed over them as the weight of Ben’s realization hit. If the resistance thought they were dead, there was no telling what had happened to them. If they were presumed dead, there wouldn’t be anyone waiting for them. And with Rey, Finn, and Poe, three of the resistance’s best assets gone for so long… he could only wonder as to the state of the resistance. Were they even still around?

Ben shuddered at the thought, then he quickly worked to shield the pain it brought from Rey. He thought about his mother sitting in some first order prison light years away, awaiting a trial for war crimes against the galaxy that she’d never committed. He wondered if they’d actually give her a trial, they’d been so willing to kill her three months earlier. He’d almost been the one to do it. He recalled vividly the sensation of the trigger button beneath his thumb, the weight of the decision he was about to make striking heavy in his heart. Equally as vivid was when he finally resolved with himself not to shoot the bridge, not to kill his mother. 

There was so much he had to atone for, and he had a much overdue conversation with her. He wondered if he’d even be able to have it. If the resistance no longer existed, if there wasn’t a war still to be fought, he’d never be able to tell her how much he regretted turning his back on her. How much he regretted everything he’d ever done, killing his father—

Suddenly overwhelmed with regret, Ben stumbled back against the nearest wall of the cockpit, and sank to the ground in front of Rey. Despite her injuries, Rey gingerly crawled over to him just before he could put his head in his hands. He tried to protest, but the pain he felt through her kept him from opening his mouth. 

She shushed him as she sat down beside him, her voice coming out through gritted teeth as she took one of his hands in hers, and stroked the back of it with her thumb. The gesture soothed him, at least enough to remind him of why he’d come back into the cockpit in the first place. 

“Rey,” he said quietly, bringing his free hand up to caress her cheek, interrupting her gentle actions on his other hand. 

“Hmm?”

“Finn and I found bunks down the hall. I was… I was able to heal him,” he explained, “I wanted to try it on you again.”

She nodded, “Go ahead,” she replied, then Ben lifted himself back off the ground, and lent her a hand. He supported her as best he could as she stood up, groaning in pain as she moved. Briefly, she lost her balance, but she stumbled into his arms, and he wasn’t going to let her fall. 

Rey wrapped an arm around Ben’s waist for support, then he led her out of the cockpit, and down the hallway toward the bunks, promising Poe he’d return to help pilot the ship when he was sure Rey was better. 

When they returned to the bunks, Ben wasn’t at all surprised to find that Finn was already sound asleep, and he had tucked himself in beneath the thick, black sheets of his bunk. Ben smirked slightly at the sight, then he led Rey to another nearby bunk just out of Finn’s view. 

With great effort, Rey laid herself down on the bunk, looking like she wanted to sob from the pain it brought her, but she said nothing. He could feel exactly how much pain she was in, but he grit his teeth, not wanting her to know just how badly he could feel it. He waited until she was comfortable on the bunk, then he gently cupped her jaw, and leaned down to bring his lips to hers in what started as a soft, chaste kiss. 

Rey’s hand snaked around the base of his skull, and buried itself in his hair, causing him to smile into the kiss as she deepened it. He was cautious not to put too much weight on her as she pulled him over her, and he kept his torso a small, but firm distance away from hers as they shared a victory kiss. All that pain and misery, and it was finally over. They would finally get to just be Ben and Rey, and they would finally get the chance to not have to worry about whether they’d have a future together. 

That future was about to start, and Ben’s heart was racing at the thought. 

He pulled away from the kiss first, smirking slightly as Rey chased after him with a disappointed whimper. “I’ve got to heal you, remember?” 

She sighed, then she let her head flip back into the well cushioned pillow, and waited for him to do his work. Ben smoothed a strand of her hair behind her ear, then he brought his hand to the hemline of her shirt, lifting it up just enough so that he could see where she’d been hurt. 

Ben wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he actually got the chance to look at the physical wound, but it hadn’t been that. If Finn’s skin had been painted, Rey’s was a horrific piece of fine art, covered in purple, blue, and black that rippled and moved as she breathed. He could feel the pain from the wound just by looking at it. He didn’t even have to feel it through the bond.

“Rey,” he breathed softly, his hand hovering hesitantly over the bruised skin. 

She gave him a nod, “Ben, it’s okay,” she assured him, taking his hand in hers, and pressing it slowly onto her broken rib cage. He watched in awe as she winced visibly, then she looked up at him with anticipation. It was his move now. 

With a nervous swallow, Ben closed his eyes, and reached out for the force, once again relieved at how easily it came to him. He felt almost gleeful as it flowed through him and into Rey’s beaten form. This time he felt like he was actually making a difference. He wasn’t straining with the effort of healing her. Instead, he felt more like he had when he’d healed Finn minutes earlier, like everything flowed smoothly with little effort. 

Slowly, Ben pulled his hand away, and opened his eyes to find Rey’s injury now looked like a small, week old, yellowing bruise. It was nothing like the terrifying blue and black it had been earlier. The sight of it filled him with relief as Rey took in a deep, almost desperate gulp of air, breathing like she’d been underwater for minutes on end, and she’d just found the surface. 

“I can breathe,” she said, a smile coming to her face, “I’d almost forgotten what it felt like.”

Ben grinned, then he reached his hand up, and pressed gently against the bruises on her face, bringing his lips to hers again as he healed her wounds. She melted against him, this time pulling his full weight on top of her now that she no longer had the horrifically broken rib to contend with. He made a surprised noise as she pulled him down, but he didn’t protest as he finished his work on the bruises on her jaw and cheek, and moved his hand down to the nick on her collarbone. 

Rey’s hands found their way into his hair—a favorite place of hers, he was quickly noticing—just as he finished his work on her collarbone, their bond hummed between them as he deepened their kiss. One of his hands found its way beneath her shirt, resting on the exact spot where she’d been severely injured just hours earlier. It was another glorious reminder that they truly were free, they’d escaped that prison without any of them dying, or losing a limb. He’d heard somewhere that it was almost Skywalker tradition at this point to lose a hand, and he didn’t fancy that happening to him any time soon. 

A sudden burst of energy entered the bond, and Ben suddenly found himself lying on his back as Rey kissed him. He found himself laughing suddenly, and they broke apart to share a giggle that quickly turned into full blown laughter as sheer glee came over the bond. It still seemed impossible. They’d been convinced they were going to die, and yet there they were, lying in a bunk together, kissing like it was both the first time and the last. 

Still not convinced he wasn’t dreaming, he leaned up, and met her lips again, the feeling of them so warm, and soft, and real he knew he couldn’t be dreaming. His mind wasn’t that good at making things up. 

They were finally outside of the prison, and they were together. That future they’d been talking about that morning now sat solid and waiting on the horizon. It was no longer an impossibility, but he wondered if she still wanted it. Slowly, he pulled away from the kiss, “Did you mean what you said this morning?”

She looked up at him with confusion in her eyes, “About what?”

“About… us?”

Rey blinked a few times, and at first he was worried it was because she no longer wanted those things, but then Rey spared him mercy when she put her thoughts into words, “That was this morning…” she said, “Feels like forever ago.”

“I know.”

“But I meant it, you’re moving into my bunk the moment we get back…” she paused, “Actually, after we tell them everything we saw.” She left out the part where they were only assuming there was something to return to. They fell silent for a moment, and Rey rested her head against his chest. 

The last seventeen days flashed before his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, remembering just how much had changed. Technically, he was still the supreme leader of the first order—at least, as far as he knew— assuming Hux hadn’t finally thrown a coup in his absence. He wondered if they were looking for him. Perhaps if they were they might’ve let up on the resistance, and maybe if they had it would increase the chances of finding them alive. 

After a moment, he sighed, remembering that he’d promised Poe he’d be right back once he healed her. He groaned at the thought of leaving the bunk, causing Rey to frown with confusion. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I promised Poe I’d help him copilot,” Ben muttered, regretting the promise somewhat, though he wasn’t sure exactly who else would do it if it weren’t him. 

“Oh…” Rey breathed, disappointment leaking into the bond as she rolled off of him, and stared up at the ceiling, “Guess you’d better get going, then.”

Ben hummed his bitterness towards having to leave her in the bunk, then he swung his legs over the side of the bed, finding he already missed Rey’s warmth on top of him. He groaned as he stood up, but before he could head off for the cockpit, a throat cleared behind him, and he turned around to see Finn slowly rising from his bunk. “Finn, what are you doing?”

“I can help Poe,” Finn said, walking down the corridor toward Ben, “I need to talk to him anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Ben asked, watching as Finn approached the door leading away from the bunks.

Finn gave him a nod, “Yeah, I’m sure. It looks like you’re a little busy.” With a knowing smirk, Finn ducked out of the room, leaving Ben blushing slightly as he turned back to the bunk. 

A moment later Ben ducked down into the bunk again, flopping himself gracelessly down onto the mattress he was sharing with Rey. Her laughter filled the room a second later, a musical sound that reminded him once again that they were no longer in the prison. They were truly free… And that reminded him of something else they’d talked about that morning. 

Ben turned to look at Rey, finding her already staring back at him with the corners of her mouth turned up in a hint of a smile. He quickly turned onto his side, and cupped her jaw in one of his hands, kissing her again like he’d never grow tired of it, and he already knew he wouldn’t. Rey’s surprised moan was muffled somewhat by his lips, but she quickly recovered, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him on top of her. 

“Not that I mind, but what’s brought this on?” she asked, breaking the kiss after a few seconds. 

Ben smirked at her, “Remember what I said this morning?” he whispered into her ear, and he could feel the chills his words sent down her spine, “About when we got out of there?”

She nodded, “I remember,” she replied, grinning up at him as her hands once again buried themselves in his hair, and she brought his lips down to hers. She smiled into the kiss as Ben’s hands reached for the hem of her shirt, and they fell over the precipice from that morning all over again. 

Meanwhile in the cockpit, Poe had set a course for Crait, and was trying to figure out the best way to signal the resistance. They wouldn’t last long if they couldn’t figure out where their friends were, and while Poe knew Crait was likely their best bet, he still feared what would happen if they weren’t there. The resistance had already been scattered amongst the stars before they’d left. Things were already changing day by day  _ before _ their two week sojourn into hell. 

He couldn’t imagine what things were like now. 

Not wanting to think too hard on it, Poe began to fiddle with the radio of the ship, seeing how it worked, how they might be able to get a message out to the resistance once they reached Crait. At the bare minimum, they could hide out in the old base until they were rescued if the resistance wasn’t there already. 

He wasn’t sure just what to put out there as a message. He didn’t want to put anything out that the first order would intercept and instantly know where they were, but he knew he had to give them something. 

Just as Poe thought he might be making some headway with the ship’s radio, he heard the cockpit door open. Finally, Ben had returned. He would’ve sworn it hadn’t taken Ben nearly that long to heal Finn, though Finn’s injuries weren’t as severe, and Ben clearly wasn’t in love with Finn. Unless he was, then he and Poe would have a new reason to hate each other. 

The thought made Poe chuckle audibly as the man he presumed to be Ben slid into the co-pilot’s seat, causing him to ask, “What’s so funny?” in a voice that was unmistakably Finn’s. 

Poe turned to face him in shock, “Finn!” he cried in delight, leaning over the space between the seats to wrap his arms around the other man, “What the hell are you doing here? I thought Ben was—”

Finn nodded, “He was supposed to, but I woke up, and I was feeling alright, so I figured I’d do it,” he replied as they pulled apart from the embrace, “Besides, it looked like he was pretty busy with Rey.”

Poe grinned knowingly, his eyes flicking back briefly to the corridor, “At least we won’t be able to hear it this time.”

“At least,” Finn replied, then he looked at the instruments on the flight deck, “What have you been up to?”

“I set a course for Crait when Ben left with Rey,” he explained, glancing out the window as hyperspace rushed by them, “Ever since I’ve just been figuring out how the radio works. I’m hoping I can figure it out by the time we get there.”

“How much time do we have?”

“Another half a day. It’s going to be a while before we get anywhere,” he said, watching as Finn slumped disappointedly back into the seat. He rested a hand on his partner’s shoulder, “Hey, we’re free. We’re going to find them eventually, I promise.”

Finn grinned at him, then Poe took one last look out the window into hyperspace before he took Finn’s face in his hands, and he kissed him again. Their first kiss outside of the confines of the prison felt infinitely better than those they’d shared within it. It felt pure and freeing, since they no longer had to worry about what would happen if they were walked in on. They no longer had to be stressed just because they decided to share a kiss, and Poe intended to take full advantage of that. 

Poe wrapped his arms around Finn’s neck as he deepened the kiss, his tongue darting out between them to brush against Finn’s bottom lip. The kiss was broken seconds later when a joyous laughter erupted from Poe’s lips, and Finn joined him a second later as they rejoiced in their newfound freedom. 

“We really did it,” Finn breathed, “We’re free.”

Poe beamed at him before he pulled him in for another, brief kiss, “We’re really free,” he replied, then he looked out the window again as hyperspace passed them by in trails of light. Within hours, they’d hopefully find their friends, and at long last, they’d be home. The thought had his heart racing with a mixture of anticipation and glee. He’d deeply missed the resistance in their absence. They’d crossed his mind every day that they’d spent in captivity. He couldn’t wait to be back with them again. He couldn’t wait to see the look on Leia’s face when she saw them again, when she found out that her son was returning to her, something she’d been waiting for for years.

A smirk crossed Poe’s features, “And we’ve got a lot of time to kill before we get there,” he said mischievously, snaking one of his hands down to rest on Finn’s chest. 

Unfortunately, Finn was more rationally minded than he was, and though he laughed, he quickly followed it with, “Don’t we still have to pilot this thing? Even in hyperspace?” And Poe groaned as he slumped back into the pilot’s seat, releasing the grip he’d had on Finn, who was now thoroughly laughing his ass off at his commander’s frustration.

“This funny to you?” Poe asked, and though he was being sarcastic there was a broad smile on his face as he looked over at Finn.

“A little.”

Shaking his head, Poe sighed, “You’re right, we do have to pilot it a bit, especially since we’ve never flown this ship before…” This time it was Finn’s head slamming back against  _ his _ seat, and Poe laughed again, “But I think we can afford a few distractions… It is a half day’s journey, and we need something to pass the time.”

“You’re an ass.”

“But you love me,” Poe said, then realizing what he said he looked away, and blushed as his eyes met the ground and his smile dropped. He’d never felt more like an idiot than he did in that moment, and he could feel an awkwardness hanging in the air between them. It felt weird and almost wrong, until Finn surprised him. 

“Yeah, I do.”

Poe looked up and away from the ground, meeting Finn’s eyes for the first time since he’d unintentionally let that one little word slip, “Yeah?”

Finn nodded, “Yeah. I love you.”

Another smile grew on Poe’s face, “I… I love you, too,” he said, then the two slipped into another round of laughter as a sense of calm washed over them. He felt relieved that his slip of the tongue had been taken so well, and he felt damn near jubilant that it had led Finn to confessing that this was truly how he felt. He could’ve fist pumped into the air if the ceiling of the cockpit weren’t just a foot above his head. 

Instead, Poe reached over and took Finn’s face in his hands, kissing him again like he was his oxygen.

They spent the next hour in stages between kissing and talking, not wanting to be too distracted from piloting their unfamiliar ship—as much as it might resemble the Falcon outwardly, it still had quite a few differences from Han Solo’s “garbage” as Rey had called it—but not wanting to be bored out of their minds either. After a while, they started to grow tired, and Poe realized neither of them had been allowed much sleep since they’d woken up to a surprise round of torture that morning. 

Poe quickly came to the idea that he and Finn could rotate with Rey and Ben every couple of hours until they reached Crait so that they would be able to get some sleep. Once they agreed on the plan, he handed control of the ship over to Finn, and headed back towards the bunks. 

  
“Make sure to knock before you go in there,” Finn warned him, a teasing look in his eyes as Poe stood up to leave. 

He chuckled at the implications of that sentence, “Don’t worry,” he replied as he opened the cockpit door, “I’ve got a plan.” He then closed it, and made his way down the corridor towards where Ben and Rey were residing in the bunks. 

As Poe reached the second door, he approached it cautiously, keeping his ears tuned for any tell tale signs of what Ben and Rey were doing behind it. Hearing nothing, he pressed his ear up against the steel door, and listened closely, but all he got back was silence. Knowing how they’d been in the prison, though, he wouldn’t put it past them to still manage to be doing something. After all, these doors were much more soundproof than the ones they’d been locked behind. 

He waited five seconds, then he knocked loudly three times on the door, and opened it just enough so that his voice would carry through the room, “You’ve got ten seconds to put your clothes on, then I’m coming in!” he shouted, then he moved to close the door again, but not before he heard the sound of one of them hitting their head on the overhead bunk. 

Poe lost it laughing when he heard Ben curse loudly a second later, but he quickly composed himself as he shut the door, and counted loudly down from ten. When he reached zero, he burst into the room to find Ben awkwardly leaning against the wall without his shirt on, and the humor of the moment was briefly ruined as Poe’s eyes found all the scars he’d obtained not just from the past, but from their time in the prison. 

Rey, meanwhile was awkwardly shuffling out of the bed, sliding her arms through the sleeves of her shirt as she avoided making eye contact with Poe. “Maybe we should try and see if there’s a wardrobe somewhere. We could use different clothes,” she muttered as she looked down at the bloodstained beige of her shirt. 

“Sounds like a great idea, but I need to talk about something else first,” Poe interrupted, waiting until he had their full attention to speak again. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for not cracking a joke about the smell of the room as he took in their terribly disheveled appearances, then he sighed, “Finn and I are getting tired up there, so we were thinking, we’ll pilot the ship in shifts until we get to Crait. What do you say you trade us out?”

Ben and Rey looked at each other, the former of the two seeming apprehensive about leaving the bunk area, but the latter nodding, “Sounds like a plan,” she said.

“Great,” Ben added a second later, then Poe beamed at them, and motioned for them to follow him back into the cockpit. As they made their way out, Ben grabbed his shirt, throwing it over his head as they walked through the steel doors, and it hit Poe again just how desperately they needed to get out of those clothes. 

He looked down at his own prison garb, finding it wasn’t quite as filthy as Rey’s or Ben’s, but it was still covered in red splotches. It was likely that the shirt was more dried blood than whatever material it had initially been made from. It certainly smelled like it, too, a coppery scent he’d almost gone nose blind to filled his nose, making him blink from the sting of it. 

A moment later, he retrieved Finn from the cockpit, and they left Ben and Rey to pilot the ship before they headed off through its corridors once more. It was past time that they got out of their bloodstained clothes. 

It took them several minutes of exhaustedly wandering through the ship’s hallways, but eventually they managed to find a sort of closet. Poe blinked as he opened the doors to a sea of black, the sort of clothing that Kylo Ren would’ve worn—a part of him wondered if Ben Solo fancied the same color—but a good half of it was women’s clothing. If he were to eyeball it, he’d say that whoever owned this ship was a woman of about Rey’s size, perhaps a little bit larger. 

He looked back at Finn, and dug through the closet a bit more until he found a few things that looked like they belonged to a man. “I wonder who this ship belongs to,” he mused as he pulled out a black tunic that looked like it’d be a bit too large for him. It’d probably fit Ben just fine, though, so he set it aside and moved through the rest of the clothing, tossing Finn a midnight blue shirt a moment later. 

“Someone who likes black, apparently,” Finn replied as he unfolded the shirt, then he frowned, “And works for the first order.” He turned the shirt around to reveal the first order’s insignia printed on a small pin near the shirt’s collar. 

Poe swallowed nervously, “Good thing there’s nothing they can do about us stealing their ship,” he replied, then he set aside more clothes for Ben and Rey, and picked out a few things for himself. Black had never been his color, but he supposed it would have to be for the time being. He didn’t exactly have a choice.

With a vigor he didn’t know he possessed, Poe practically tore his horrid prison shirt off of his body, and promptly traded it for the second black tunic he’d found in the closet. He and Ben were going to have to match until they found better clothes, but this was the best he could do. They were just lucky there were enough men’s sized shirts in the closet. 

The pants he’d found were a pair of slacks that were just a bit too long for his legs. They’d clearly been intended for someone with a bit more height, but they didn’t fall from his hips, and that was the bare minimum he was asking for. Finn’s were much the same, and by the time they were both dressed, they looked like they’d been working for the first order all their lives and not the resistance. 

“This might be the softest shirt I’ve ever worn,” Finn said as he ran his hands over the material covering his chest. 

Poe laughed as he grabbed the clothes he’d set aside for Ben and Rey, “It’s not, you’re just glad it’s not what you were wearing.”

Finn joined him in his laughter as they began to walk back to the cockpit, shutting the door to the closet as they went. They walked past the bunks, and Poe failed to avoid teasing about Ben and Rey. “Looks like they tangled those sheets pretty good,” he said as they passed the bunk their friends had been occupying, “At least now I know which bunk to avoid.” As they reached the cockpit, Finn shushed him, preventing him from making any further jokes as Poe slid open the cockpit door. 

When they found them, Ben and Rey were holding hands, fingers laced together as they stared out the window watching hyperspace pass them by. They quickly turned to see who had opened the door, their shoulders tense until they realized it was just Poe, then they relaxed as he handed them the spare clothing they’d found. 

Rey’s face turned into a frown when she saw the insignia branded onto the wrap style blouse Poe had handed her, “This is…”

“From the first order, I know,” Poe said, then he pointed to Finn, whose own shirt had the same insignia pinned to it. 

Ben looked down at the ground awkwardly, but said nothing as he shook out the tunic Poe had given him. Without needing to be bonded to him, Poe could feel the guilt radiating from Ben as if it were his own. It was a strange sight, seeing Ben feel guilty. He’d never expected to see it, not in the years he’d been with the resistance did he ever think he’d see the man who once was Kylo Ren ever look guilty for what he’d done, but back then he’d always worn a mask. Now that he didn’t have that mask, his emotions were on display for all to see, and he could no longer see just anger. 

“Wake us up in a couple of hours,” Poe told them after a moment of silence, “Um… see if you can figure out the radio. We’ll need to make contact with the resistance when we get there.”

“Will do,” Ben replied, then Poe shot him a quick smile before he and Finn headed out of the cockpit and back into the bunks. They were long overdue for a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was so long, I had to delete another scene because it just dragged the hell on. Also sorry this took me so long. I had to move out of my dorm and back in with my family, and I would've posted this last night, but I have a dog and I love her dearly so this had to wait. Till next time, y'all.


	19. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Holy shit,” he breathed, his heart racing at the thought that they’d actually been right. That the resistance was actually there. It couldn’t be that easy. After all they’d been through, there was no way they were that lucky. 
> 
> “What? What is it?” Finn asked beside him, eyes trained out the window of their stolen ship as he searched for whatever it was Poe had seen. 
> 
> “I think I just saw an x-wing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I found out about five minutes before I decided to post this that I not only passed all my classes but I didn't get a single god damn C. I saw god in this chili's tonight. Anyway, we're now only 4.5k-ish away from 100k so you bet I'm going to be working my ass off on the next chapter so we can get there.

 

Poe’s dreams were plagued with nightmares. Within them he was still in the prison, still trapped in that miserable hell hole that had taken what felt like years off of his life. He dreamt he was strapped to that odd sort of table they had, and they were injecting him with the drug. The fire he felt as it coursed through his veins was so frighteningly real he was convinced this couldn’t be a dream.

It felt like they hadn’t actually escaped, and as a consequence they were being punished for their second attempt. The guards screamed out questions to him, the lead guard at the head of it all, staring him down through his mask. He wanted desperately to reach up and tear the damn thing from his face, to look his enemy in the eyes and ask him why the hell he was doing this. He knew the reason. He knew they were hoping to profit off of the war, but he needed to know why they had to torture them. Why the hell had they been made to suffer so much?

The nightmare dragged on for far too long, and by the end of it Poe was mentally exhausted, but then he was quickly thrust into another one. This one took place hours after the first, and he was all alone in his cell, except he wasn’t. The bodies of his friends littered the floor, there were holes in their chests from blaster fire, and their eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. Poe heard his own voice crying out “No,” as he knelt down by them, falling in between Finn and Rey, taking their faces in his hands one at a time and begging for them to wake up even though he knew they wouldn’t. 

He felt something wet beneath his knees, and he quickly realized it was their blood. The thought of it had him scrambling up off of the floor, and straight back into the door of his cell, staring in horror at the blood on his hands and knees. 

Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, suddenly Rey sat up, and looked at him. Her eyes were still glassy and unseeing, and the hole was still prominent in her chest, but she seemed to somehow be glaring at him as she pointed an accusing finger in his direction, “You did this,” she told him, her voice almost a growl as it echoed through his mind.

Though he was already up against the wall, Poe tried to back away further, his feet sliding uselessly on the cell floor as he rose up against it, “No, no I didn’t,” he replied, then he screamed as Finn rose from the ground, his eyes just as glassy as Rey’s. 

“But you did. If you hadn’t told them anything, we’d still be alive,” Finn said, hissing the words like he was a snake and they were his venom. 

“We’d all be alive,” Ben added as he too sat up, looking at him with those frightening, glazed over eyes. 

“No, no, I didn’t mean to!” Poe cried as they all began to stand up, and walk toward him, moving in perfect synchrony, “I didn’t want to tell them! I’m sorry!”

“You think sorry is going to undo this?” Finn asked.

“We trusted you,” Rey said, her accusatory finger prodding his chest as they approached, “And you betrayed us.”

“Rey, please!”

“What are you going to tell my mother?” Ben asked, his deep voice all the more haunting as he spoke the words, “How are you going to look her in the eyes and tell her you got her son killed?”

“No, Ben I didn’t! I didn’t!” Poe cried as they all towered over him, “I’m sorry… I’m… I’m sorry!”

Poe woke up abruptly to the sound of someone calling out to him, and at first he didn’t recognize the voice. Nor did he remember where he was. For the first second he was awake, he forgot what had happened to him during the day. He forgot about the escape, about the ship they’d stolen, and about heading home. 

For the first moment after he woke up, Poe was in a state of sheer terror, and like there had been in his nightmare, someone was towering over him. He didn’t even think before he kicked them away, his foot slamming into someone’s torso, sending a tall form flying backward into the bunks on the other side of the corridor. 

“Poe!” a voice cried out, a much more familiar, much more calming voice, but Poe didn’t care, because now someone else was towering over him, too. He shoved the other person away, and rushed out of the bunk, running to the nearest door in fright. 

“No!” he shouted, slamming into the door full force before he moved to open it, but his fingers were fumbling too much to move the sliding mechanism of the door. He felt himself begin to panic even more, but then he realized who those voices belonged to. 

Catching his breath, Poe turned around to see a very shell shocked Finn, and somewhat irritated Ben looking at him with their jaws slack. They stood several feet away from him, neither one of them looked sure what to do first as they approached him cautiously. 

“Poe, it was just a nightmare,” Finn said, breaking the silence first, “We’re free, we’re not there anymore.”

His breath caught in his throat, and he remembered everything that had happened the day. Everything from the moment he woke up to the moment he and Finn snuggled up beneath the sheets of their bunk on the ship came flooding back to him, and he felt a surge of relief wash over him as he slumped against the door. “I’m so sorry,” he said, mostly to Ben. If the way he was holding his stomach was any sign, he’d kicked him pretty hard when he woke up. 

Ben didn’t look too upset about it, “It’s fine, I’ll probably have nightmares, too,” he replied, then under his breath he added, “On top of the ones I already have.”

Poe looked at him like he wanted him to elaborate, but Ben gave no further explanation. Realizing he wouldn’t be getting anything else out of him, he sighed, then he glanced at Finn, who was standing right in front of him at that point with a worried look in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

He wasn’t okay. He really wasn’t, though he knew all too well that neither were Finn, Rey, or Ben. Still, he supposed they were doing much better than they’d been in his dream. There weren’t any blaster wounds or glassy, dead eyes staring at him in reality. 

“Do you need another minute before Rey and I trade you out?” Ben asked, running a hand through his messy, dark hair, “I only came back here because Rey was tired. We… we didn’t exactly nap earlier.”

The old Poe came back in a heartbeat, “Oh, I know you didn’t.”

“Poe!” Finn cried, shaking his head as Ben turned a shade of pink that nearly looked crimson against his pale skin. 

Poe was laughing as he leaned back against the door, “What? You telling me you didn’t notice the sm—”

“I think we’re good,” Finn interrupted him, and a flushed Ben’s shoulders slumped with relief, “We’ll send Rey back in a minute.” With that, he slid the door open, and sent Poe out into the hallway with a light shove. 

“Ow.”

“That’s payback.” Finn’s voice was mercifully still light and teasing, but Poe winced as he shut the door behind them, and followed Finn down the hall toward the cockpit. 

“I’m so sorry about that, I don’t know what came over me,” he explained, remembering the nightmare in all it’s horrid, explicit detail, “It just… it felt so real.”

Finn looked back at him, clearly wanting him to say more, but they’d arrived at the cockpit, and Rey was waiting for them behind it’s door. Neither of them said anything as they slid it open, and Rey turned to look at them from the copilot’s seat. 

Rey greeted them with a yawn, and she slowly stood up before she climbed out of the co-pilot’s seat to make room for the two of them. She rubbed her eyes as she walked past, another yawn escaping her lips. 

“Did you guys have any luck with the radio?” Poe asked. It had to be worth a shot. He knew Rey was a good mechanic, and she’d likely seen situations like this before in her time on Jakku. 

She shook her head, “No,” she replied, but then she sighed, “I think we made some progress, though. It’s making these beeping noises on the hour.”

“How many times has it done that?”

“Four.” She must’ve seen the way his eyes widened slightly as she said this, for she gave him a small smile, “You looked like you needed the sleep.”

“You needed it more.”

“Not now that I don’t have a broken rib,” she reminded him, “Anyway, we’re about halfway to Crait, hopefully they’ll be there.”

Poe returned her soft smile, “We’ll find out.”

Rey nodded, then she slid the door open, and walked out into the hall, closing it shut behind her a moment later. Once she was gone, Poe turned to Finn, and the two jumped into the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively.

His hands were instantly on that radio. He wasn’t sure if this ship would be able to transmit anything from hyperspace, but he’d be damned if he didn’t at least try. At the bare minimum he wanted to get that radio working by the time they got to Crait. 

They were silent for a while. Poe stared out the window as hyperspace passed them in streams of blue and white light after he’d tried the radio for a good ten minutes. He leaned back against the pilot’s seat, and sighed. He’d actually managed to get it working somewhat. All it emitted though was a loud, high pitched noise that made him turn it off immediately. 

They wouldn’t be making contact with anyone while still in hyperspace. 

“Are you okay?” Finn asked him for the second time. 

If Poe were being honest, no he wasn’t, and he had no idea if he’d ever be okay again. There was something about their experience in the prison that had him more shaken than anything else he’d experienced in the war. It left him feeling more on edge and afraid than ever, and he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that at any moment he’d wake up and be back in his and Finn’s cell. Just like in his nightmare, he feared they hadn’t truly escaped. He feared they never would. 

“I’m fine.” It was a lie. He knew it was a lie, and Finn knew it was a lie, but Poe would continue to say it no matter how much he was pressed to admit the truth. He was too stubborn. 

Finn wasn’t going to let him off that easy, “If you’re having nightmares like that, you’re not fine.” 

He was right. They both knew he was right, but Poe still felt hesitant to talk about that terrifying nightmare he experienced. He didn’t even know where to start. He was supposed to be the brave one, always willing to jump into danger whenever he needed to. Yet here he was still shaking somewhat from what he’d seen in his unconscious mind. 

“Poe?”

Swallowing nervously, Poe glanced over at Finn, and sighed, “You really want to know?”

“ _ Yes. _ ”

As much as he didn’t want to, Poe told him everything. He told Finn about reliving the torture, writhing in pain on the table as the drug coursed through his system. He told him about the way he’d fallen to his knees between their bodies, about how they’d risen from the dead and accused him of killing them. Tears rose to his eyes by the end of it, and he barely held them back. 

At the end of it, he looked at Finn, who was staring at him with a sympathetic look in his eyes. “I had a nightmare, too,” he confessed, “I’ve been having them every night since they started torturing us.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We had enough to worry about. I didn’t want to add to it.”

Poe reached across the space between them, and took Finn’s hand, “You’re always welcome to add to it. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Finn smiled softly at him, “I won’t,” he replied, squeezing Poe’s hand before he laced their fingers together, and they turned to look out the window. They had a long ways to go before they’d find home again. 

The rest of the trip passed agonizingly slowly. Three hours later they traded Ben and Rey out to catch some more sleep, only neither of them was able to even close their eyes for more than a minute. Poe in particular was extremely restless, and he was almost relieved when after another two hours Rey came to announce that they were switching places again. He was actually delighted when she told him they had about another hour left in hyperspace before they arrived at Crait. 

Poe spent the remainder of their journey making sure the radio worked, and on top of that making sure it wasn’t tuned into any first order frequencies. The only problem with that was he couldn’t guarantee that they would work. 

An hour later, as Rey promised, they emerged from light speed, and Poe cheered loudly enough that he probably woke up Ben and Rey—assuming they were actually sleeping—and he caused Finn to jump in his seat before he joined him in celebrating. Ahead of them was Crait, looking as dull as ever, but right then it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. 

Unable to contain his glee, Poe leaned over and wrapped his arms around Finn, pressing a kiss into the side of his head before he pulled away, and scanned the skies ahead of them for any sign that the resistance was there. Seeing nothing at first, he reached for the radio on his left, but he stopped short when he saw it. 

It was just for a second and he might’ve been dreaming, but he thought he saw an x-wing zoom by a good ways ahead of them, heading straight for the planet’s surface. “Holy shit,” he breathed, his heart racing at the thought that they’d actually been right. That the resistance was actually there. It couldn’t be that easy. After all they’d been through, there was no way they were that lucky. 

“What? What is it?” Finn asked beside him, eyes trained out the window of their stolen ship as he searched for whatever it was Poe had seen. 

“I think I just saw an x-wing.”

“Are you sure?”

Poe waited a moment before responding, then he laughed in delight when he saw two more of his favorite aircraft heading straight for them, “In sure,” he said, “Go get Ben and Rey. Tell them we’re home.”

In the bunks, Ben and Rey were sound asleep—at least, one of them was. The latter of the two was wrapped up in the former’s arms, listening to his heart beating in his chest as he slept on. She smiled at the occasional soft snore he let out, knowing it would probably annoy her eventually, but for now she was just relieved they were alive. That fact alone meant that in that moment, anything he did was glorious. 

The moment was so peaceful, so calm compared to what they’d been through in the last several—it was now eighteen—days, that it felt like it could never end. Even as Ben’s shoulders tensed from the nightmare he was having, she felt at peace, and she let that feeling soar over her into their bond, hoping to ease his fear. It seemed to work, and as she looked up at him, the frown lines in his face relaxed. 

Gently, she leaned up and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose, and grinned at him even though he didn’t wake up to see it. She wondered what he was dreaming about now, if he was dreaming at all, or if he was dreaming of her. She’d certainly dreamt of him. The dream she’d had about the throne room a week or so earlier came to her mind, and she wished she’d been able to finish it and she hadn’t been interrupted by the thunder. 

The moment was finally interrupted by the sound of the door sliding open, and Rey turned to see who had come in, trying her best not to wake Ben as she moved. She couldn’t see who it was, all she could see was dark clothing until Finn’s face ducked down beneath the bunk, and he smiled at her when he saw she was awake, “Rey, we made it.”

She returned his smile with a broad one of her own, “Are they here? Did we find them?”

Finn nodded, “Poe thinks so, we saw x-wings out the window, he’s trying to contact them now.” 

Rey sat up bolt right in an instant, rousing Ben from his sleep. He grumbled a quiet, “What is it?” that had her melting a little, and she reached down to brush his unruly hair from his face. 

“We made it, Ben,” she said, watching his eyes go from their half asleep state to wide, then she turned to Finn, “We’ll be there in a minute.”

Finn gave her another nod, then he patted the bunk above theirs, and headed back down the corridor. Rey watched him go, then she turned back to Ben, noticing his fear had leaked back into the bond. She took one of his hands in hers, “Don’t be scared,” she told him. 

“They’re going to hate me,” he replied, letting out a shaky breath, “Rey, I don’t know if I should come out with you.”

She scoffed and shook her head, “That’s shit. Complete, utter shit. They’ll be fine. At the minimum they’ll see you as a tactical advantage, Ben, and some of them will be delighted that you’ve turned back. Your  _ mother _ will be ecstatic when she sees you. And the others…? When they realize the supreme leader has defected they’ll be… And especially when they realize what you did for us in the prison. That alone… If it was enough for Finn and Poe, it’ll be enough for them.”

He still looked apprehensive, but he sighed less anxiously this time, and he sat up beside her, “I trust you,” he told her, “But if someone tries to kill me—”

“No one’s going to try to kill you, Ben. I don’t think most of them even know what you look like.” She reached up a hand to caress his cheek, then she pulled him to her in a kiss that she intended to keep short, but before she knew it Ben’s arms were wrapping around her waist, and she was being pulled down on top of him as he descended back into the sheets. 

At first Rey didn’t mind, and she welcomed the kiss, returning it with the same passion they’d had in every kiss since their first. After a few seconds, though, she remembered Finn and Poe were waiting for them in the cockpit, and they had a reunion to get to. She broke the kiss, doing her best to ignore the betrayed sounding groan that left his lips the second she did, and she sighed, “We should get to the cockpit, Finn’s waiting for us, and well, you know what Poe probably thinks we're doing.”

“I wish we were.”

Rey shook with laughter, then she rolled off of him, and stood up out of the bunk. He followed suit a second later, and she reached out her hand for his, waiting until he took it before she began to walk down the hall toward the cockpit, sliding open the first door with a grunt. 

She and Ben arrived in the cockpit a few seconds later to find Poe already speaking into the radio, his voice carrying a feeling of hopeful delight she’d been feeling since their escape. “... I promise it’s me!” Poe was saying, “Tell the General I’ve got Finn and Rey with me…” there was a pause, “And tell her… tell her her son’s here as well.”

Rey looked back at Ben, not hearing the answer of whoever was on the other side of the radio as she watched his eyes staring blankly ahead. She squeezed his hand, bringing his attention back to her, and she caressed his face with the other, her thumb falling in line with the scar she’d given him, “Ben, it’s alright.”

He turned his head and pressed a kiss into her palm, then Finn and Poe turned to face them, realizing they were now in the room. “Hey,” Poe said, a shit eating grin on his face as he looked between them, “I’d bet money on what had you two behind.”

“You’d lose money, then,” Rey replied, causing Poe to throw his head back with laughter. 

The commander flipped a switch a second later, and they began their descent into the planet’s atmosphere, “You better strap in, we’re almost home.”

Rey beamed at him, then she walked forward, and sat down in one of the seats she and Finn had sat in at the beginning of their too long journey. Ben quickly followed suit, and the two of them reached across the space between them, holding both hands as the ship began to shake upon entry into Crait’s atmosphere. 

A loud, whooping cry came from Poe’s mouth as they descended closer and closer to the planet’s surface. A nervous anticipation filled her bond with Ben as the seconds passed, and she tried to ease his mind at first, but then she remembered his mother. She was going to have to eventually explain to Leia that she’d fallen for her son, that they were together, and suddenly she fully understood Ben’s fear of the reunion. 

“What is it?” Ben asked, no doubt sensing her concern. 

She gave him a nervous laugh, “I don’t know how I’m going to look Leia in the eye when we…”

“Oh.”

“Now I’m afraid, too.”

This time it was Ben’s turn to break into laughter, his deep voice infectious as joy filtered in through the bond. Rey’s cheeks flushed and she looked at the ground, then a second later, one of Ben’s hands let go of one of hers. She felt confused for a second, but then Ben’s hand came around to hold the base of her skull, and his face was mere inches from hers, “Something tells me she’ll be okay with it,” he replied, “As long as we don’t mention the…”

“Wasn’t planning to.”

Ben’s lips pressed against hers then, though it was a brief kiss due to the constant rocking of their freighter as it rocked through Crait’s atmosphere. Rey giggled as he pulled away, and slumped back into his seat. 

It was then that the shaking stopped, and Poe announced they would be landing within the minute. She watched as his hand reached between the seats, and gripped Finn’s, the two sharing a round of delighted laughter as Poe brought the ship in for a long awaited landing. 

The final minute of the flight seemed like it took forever, but eventually, Rey felt the ship come to a stop, and she looked up at Ben excitedly. The two immediately stood, and looked out the window to find themselves facing the entrance to the base she’d rescued them from three months later. Oh how times changed. 

A small crowd of the resistance members were racing out onto the field to greet them, some were holstering their blasters—likely in the case that the ship was a threat—and others were simply running, creating red in the white salts as they rushed toward them in the light of the setting sun. It didn’t take her long to spot some familiar faces in the crowd, the first of them being—

“There’s Rose,” Finn said, quickly getting up from his seat.

“We should get out there,” Rey added, tugging on Ben’s hand before she rushed out of the cockpit. Finn and Poe were close behind, following practically on her heels as they rushed toward the exit of their stolen ship, and pressed the button that would lower their ramp. 

They could hear the cheering before Poe’s hand slammed on the button, and Rey lost her grip on Ben’s hand as her hands found her hair in excitement. She almost squealed, though she managed to hold it back, as the ramp lowered to reveal the soft light outside—a mercy as their eyes were not adjusted to full sunlight after those weeks in the prison— and the moment it hit the ground, she ran down with it, rushing to greet the people she’d gotten to know and love over the past three months. 

Rose came forward first, calling out her name with an excited cry, and—were those tears in her eyes—a bone crushing hug ensued as she wrapped her arms firmly around Rey’s waist. She was thankful that Ben’s force healing had been successful, or with her formerly broken rib that would’ve been new levels of painful. Rey quickly returned the hug, then Rose was off to hug Finn and Poe, who stepped out behind her. 

After Rose, Rey found Kaydel next, exchanging another brief—mercifully not bone crushing— hug before she moved on to the others. 

Eventually, Rey found Leia waiting for her in the back of the crowd, the older woman’s face displaying a mixture of emotions as she held out her arms for her. On the general’s face, Rey could see happiness, anxiety, fear, and peace all at once, and as she took her into her arms she wondered what it all meant. “Welcome back,” Leia said as she pulled away. 

Rey beamed at her, “You have no idea how good it feels to be here,” she replied, recalling the prison in horrid detail, “We’ve been through hell these last few weeks, I’m sorry we couldn’t get out sooner.”

“I’m sure you had good reason.”

Tears sprang to Rey’s eyes, though whether they were from grief or from delight she couldn’t tell. She tried to blink them away, but it was to no avail, they simply spilled out onto her cheeks, and Rey felt a chill where the wind met her dampened face. She looked back, searching for Ben. She’d thought he was right behind her, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. 

She spotted him standing shyly in the background at the base of the ramp of the freighter they’d stolen, his arms crossed as he leaned against it. Though he was hiding from the crowd, there was a smile on his face as he watched Finn and Poe joking with Rose, their faces lighting up as they laughed at something one of them had said. Rey watched him with a new sadness in her eyes, but she understood entirely why he wanted to stay behind. He didn’t feel like he belonged. He didn’t know these people like she, Finn, and Poe did. It was bound to be a little awkward for him no matter what she said to reassure him. 

Rey turned back to the general, “We were imprisoned the day we left on that mission,” she explained, “We were captured on the same day as Ben—he’s the one we were sent out to meet, Leia.” She watched the other woman’s face carefully, and when she saw a hint of a smile forming, she continued, “There’s a lot more I need to tell you, but the short version is he’s the reason we’re here, he saved us. Your son has returned.”

Leia’s smile was true now, and she reached out and took one of Rey’s hands in both of hers, “I suspected as much,” she said, “There are things I need to tell you, too about what happened in your absence, but for now… I want to see my son.”

Rey nodded, then she and the general weaved their way through the small crowd, walking all the way until they reached the stolen freighter. She watched as Ben stiffened when he saw his mother, uncrossing his arms and stepping away from the ramp as she got closer. Rey decided to hang back for a moment, stopping several feet away from Ben as Leia continued to walk up to her son. She wanted to let them have their reunion in private, but she didn’t quite turn away. 

She watched from a distance as Leia finally approached Ben, and the two began what must’ve started as an uneasy conversation if what he was sending through the bond was any indication. A small anxiety filled her as she watched, and Leia reached up a hand to caress her son’s cheek, her hand falling right over the scar Rey had given him—she’d have to apologize for that one later— as she looked on. 

After a moment, she saw Ben’s eyes filling with tears, and a faint sob left his throat. At least, from a distance it sounded faint. But Rey didn’t feel grief through the bond as she watched Ben’s tears fall onto his cheeks, instead she felt relief, and almost happiness. 

Her heart nearly melted when Ben wrapped his arms around his mother a minute later, and Leia returned his embrace immediately. A broad smile rose to Rey’s features as she watched them reunite properly as mother and son. 

After a few seconds, they broke apart from their embrace, and turned to face Rey. She could feel Ben’s sudden confidence through the bond, and her own confusion no doubt filtered through as he gestured for her to come over. 

Her feet moved before her mind did, and next thing she knew she was in Ben’s arms once again. She was being lifted into the air, and spun around, letting out a pleasantly surprised shout as she was picked up. Ben set her down a second later, and turned back to his mother, “It was Rey,” he explained, finishing whatever he’d been telling her earlier, “In the end it was… it was Rey that convinced me to turn.”

Leia’s smile never wavered as she looked over at Rey, “Thank you,” she told her, saying everything else she wanted to say with her eyes.

“It wasn’t just me,” Rey said, searching the crowd for Finn and Poe, and feeling relieved when she found them already striding toward her, Ben, and Leia. 

The crowd around them had begun to dissipate, a majority of people heading back into the base as they finished greeting their newly freed friends. Rose was among the few who stayed behind, walking up between Finn and Poe as they approached. The three had their arms around each other’s shoulders, and smiles on their faces by the time they stopped in front of Ben, Rey, and Leia. 

“General,” Poe said, his voice maintaining some semblance of formality as he dropped his arm from Rose’s shoulders. 

“Commander.”

The two locked eyes, and their serious expressions immediately melted away as Poe crossed the space between them, and took Leia into presumably another bone crushing hug. “It’s good to see you,” she said as they pulled away, the delight in her eyes almost worth every second they’d spent in that prison. As long as she’d been with the resistance, Rey had never seen her look that happy. 

“It’s good to be back,” Poe replied, then he looked over at the disappearing crowd, “Wonder what happened while we were away.”

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Leia told him. 

“Must’ve been a lot, we were gone eighteen days.”

There was a pause, then the general sighed, “We should get back inside, you need to tell us everything about where you were,” she said, taking a step in the direction of the base, “And I need to show you something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited we're so close to the end. This is the fastest I've ever written a fic in my life... This literally started two months ago because I couldn't push the idea from my mind and now we're at 95k... holy shit.  
> I’m editing this in after I already posted it but I forgot to mention I wrote another fic and the first chapter and it’s 10k glory is up and it would be fantastic if y’all checked it out. (Thanks in advance)


	20. The Other Eighteen Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I woke up and at first I felt pretty awful,” Poe said with a hint of a smile on his face, “But then I saw Rey and Finn and I realized we were still together, so things might not be so bad. And that’s when I saw who they’d seated next to Rey.”
> 
> “In my defense I was only there to meet you.”
> 
> “What shit timing you have.”
> 
> “Tell me about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a second longer than usual, but life comes at you fast. I started working again- I work at a dog daycare during the summers and well, dogs- and I'm not going to use the author's notes on a fic to vent about my personal life. That's what tumblr is for and anyway, here it is.

As they walked back to the base, the people of the crowd that remained made small talk with their newly returned friends. At least, most of them did. Rey noticed quickly that Rose was staring at Ben with a curiosity in her eyes, like she recognized him, but she didn’t know from where. As far as Rey knew, it was impossible for Rose to know what Ben looked like unless Leia had shown her, or if she was one of the few people who had seen Kylo Ren without the mask.

Despite Ben having mostly gotten rid of the mask, no one had seen much of the new supreme leader once Snoke was dead. Some in the resistance knew what he looked like, but their time in the prison had taken its toll, and with his mussed up hair, somewhat emaciated frame, and the stubble covering the lower half of his face, it was hard to match him with the man they’d seen.

Rose seemed to notice him despite the changes, and Rey felt a twinge of fear rush through the bond the longer the stare went on. Ben had noticed the staring, too, and one of his hands found hers as they walked, lacing their fingers together.

“Who are you?” Rose asked after the longest time, it was long enough that they were nearly upon the shelter of the base.

“The supreme leader,” Ben said sarcastically, and Rey would’ve wondered how he kept his voice level, but she was too busy hitting him in the gut with the palm of her free hand as they walked.

Mercifully, Rose scoffed, and laughed off the joke, but while she laughed, it became clear that she recognized him from the look in her eyes, “Not anymore, that General guy took over a few days after you guys left.”

Ben looked nervously between Rey, Finn, and Poe, each of them knowing the implications of what that meant. They all knew precisely which general had taken over his position, but that left the question as to why and how it had happened, a question which Rey knew she couldn’t resist asking, “How did that happen?”

This time it was Leia who spoke up, “It’s like I said,” she told them, pausing briefly as she took in a deep breath, “I’ve got something to show you.”

Rey wasn’t sure what the interior of the base on Crait looked like the last time they’d used it—she’d been busy flying the Falcon when they’d been there before, after all—but she knew from what Finn, Poe, and Rose had told her that it wasn’t this. Inside it was a somewhat bustling place, though the numbers of the resistance were still quite few, and nowhere near what they once were. It was decked out with all of the resistance’s technology, with monitors, buttons, and blinking lights lining one wall, and communicator devices lining the other.

Before they stepped any further into the building, she heard Poe’s feet come to a grinding halt behind her, his prison slippers—which they were unfortunately still wearing for lack of fitting footwear—creating a squeaking noise as he did so. The sound caused the others to turn around to see a confused expression on Poe’s face, “Wait, where’s my droid?”

No sooner did the words leave his mouth than did the sound of something rolling on the hard floors of the base come rumbling in the distance. Within seconds BB-8 appeared, beeping and twittering away excitedly as he rushed up to Poe, who was already kneeling down to meet him.

“Hey, buddy!” Poe said excitedly as the droid finally reached him, running his hands over the droid as if it were an animal that was his pet. The sight of it had Rey’s heart melting as she watched, but she knew it couldn’t last forever.

After a moment, Leia cleared her throat, and Poe stood quickly as they continued their walk into the base, walking until they turned into a room off to their left.

As they entered it, Rey felt Ben tense beside her, and she could only wonder why his emotions were suddenly a deep, intensifying sadness as they walked into the room. “What is it?” she asked.

“This is where you shut me out,” he replied, his eyes scanning the room as if he were seeing it for the first time, “Right here, in this room.”

Rey looked around to see various instruments lining the walls in this one as they had in the last, only this one had a window overlooking the base, and at the center of it all, was an enormous, circular table. One which was no doubt what they were using to display holograms as she’d seen in the past.

That last thing was what Leia led them to, and she didn’t hesitate before she began to pull something up on a holographic screen. “I want everyone who isn’t myself and our newly returned friends to leave this room,” she said to Rose, who quickly gave her a nod, and worked on ushering the others from the space to give the general an air of privacy. The only one who stayed was BB-8, who remained by Poe’s side as the general began to explain what had happened on their end of the last eighteen days.

Once everyone else had gone away, the general sighed, and leaned against the table for a moment before she spoke again, “We thought you were dead for two days,” she told them, a sorrow filling her features that Rey hadn’t missed in her absence from Leia’s company, “For two days it felt like you were dead, and I thought I’d never see you again. The day you left, I felt the loss of my son from the force, and when it came at the same time as the news that you three had gone missing, I knew something wasn’t right.

“To explain how I thought you might be alive, I need to show you something first,”she continued, pressing a button at the base of the hologram table that brought up a strikingly familiar image that Rey knew had Ben’s blood running cold.

In the hologram, she could see herself and Ben in the elevator they’d taken to Snoke’s throne room that fateful day when she’d gone out to meet him. She could see the distance between them in the image, taken just after they’d stepped in, but it quickly began to move as Leia pressed another button, and for the first time, she watched in vivid detail just what had gone down that day.

Vaguely, she wondered just how Leia had come upon this footage from the Supremacy, but it barely registered as she watched herself talking to Ben on screen. She wondered if her voice had always sounded like that, or if that was just how the holo made it sound. Watching herself move closer to Ben in the elevator until there was scant space between them, it was a miracle that they’d held off on admitting how they felt for as long as they did. Just watching this footage made her remember just how long she’d felt something for him—where it had all started.

She didn’t feel too flustered, though, until she got to the bit where she was talking about how they touched hands. She could feel Finn and Poe’s gazes upon her as the things she was saying in the elevator registered with them, and they seemed to realize, too just how long this had been going on. Leia looked unfazed, but that was likely because she’d seen this before. There was still an underlying confusion in her eyes, and Rey knew that at some point she’d have to explain the force bond, and subsequently her relationship with Ben.

Rey blushed as her gaze fell to the floor upon hearing her words for the first time, her feet shuffling awkwardly as she struggled to look at the screen. Perhaps he sensed her awkwardness, or perhaps he felt the same, for a moment later, Ben’s hand appeared in her field of vision, and she took it. She laced her fingers through his with a smile as she looked up at him, and leaned into his shoulder, feeling for the first time as if everything was truly in balance.

The balance didn’t last long as the scene from the elevator quickly shifted with the press of a button from Leia, and suddenly the entire confrontation in the throne room was on display. Everything from the minute they’d stepped foot inside, Ben’s hand on her arm as they walked up to Snoke to the minute they fought for the lightsaber was caught on camera for the whole galaxy to see. She didn’t doubt that if Leia had managed to get this footage, so had everyone else who wanted to get their hands on it.

Reliving the fight as it was onscreen didn’t do the feeling of the real thing justice. During that fight in the throne room, Rey had felt unstoppable. As they came together for the first time, as they fought together, Rey had never felt more powerful, and the footage she was watching didn’t quite match up with what she’d experienced. Of course she still saw Ben skewer Snoke with her lightsaber—which she had yet to repair— and of course she still saw them come together to fight, but that footage couldn’t convey the way it had felt when they finally fought side by side.

By the time it ended, Finn and Poe were staring at her and Ben in a mixture of awe and disbelief, and the latter of the two quickly grinned, “That was badass,” he said, “Where did this footage come from?”

“Did you grab his thigh?” Finn asked, though it was clear from the hushed tone he was thinking out loud, and not actually addressing her.

“It came from the Supremacy. Two days after you disappeared, Hux found this, and sent it throughout the galaxy,” Leia explained, “He sent that along with word that he was taking over as supreme leader, claiming that Ben was a traitor… and on top of that…”

The image on screen shifted from Rey and Ben’s unconscious forms on the throne room floor to that of a mysterious looking black device emitting a red light from an odd sort of spherical bulb on its sides, “He announced that he’d developed a new technology, and it was being sold to anyone who had the money. He released new propaganda that made people believe force users were much more prevalent in numbers than they really are, showed off the numbers he had from the people he’d already sold it to.”

Ben looked at it like it was something he recognized, but he didn’t understand it, “I caught him with that once in his chambers,” he said, “I was requesting that he attend a meeting… and he was fumbling to put it away. He said it was just something he was tinkering with at the time, and I was…” He looked at Rey, “Distracted, so I thought nothing of it, but now… What is it?”

Leia shook her head, “Supposedly it can restrict access to the force,” she told him, and suddenly a lot of things started to make sense about the last two and a half weeks, “It emits some sort of energy that blocks off the access we have to that power, and I didn’t think much of it at first either, but then I thought of that sudden disconnect between you and I.” She looked up at Ben, her eyes filled with that grief once again, but it was fleeting, passing before Rey could even think to comment on it in her thoughts. “And I realized you might not actually be dead.”

Rey, Ben, Finn, and Poe all exchanged a knowing look as realization filled their features. This must’ve been what had caused them to be unable to use the force until they’d overcome the device. Whatever Hux had been developing, their captors must’ve invested some money in. It would certainly explain their otherwise lack of impressive technology and clothing of any sort, and the state the prison was constantly in. And why they’d had to stash aside all the stolen ships instead of just leaving them behind.

It still didn’t explain why their captors thought they needed such technology _before_ Hux’s propaganda hit the galaxy. That was the sole portion of the mystery Rey couldn’t quite work out, but she sure as hell would figure it out later. After all, she’d promised they’d return and free the other prisoners. While they were there, she’d be damned sure to ask the guards everything she could before they “We couldn’t use the force in the prison,” she told Leia, “We were blocked off from it completely. It took Ben and I days if not a week to figure out how to beat it. If we’d been unblocked we would’ve returned sooner.”

“I know you would’ve,” Leia replied, giving her a sympathetic glance, “But this is what made me believe there was a chance. It wasn’t until yesterday that I felt something for the first time that confirmed it. We were just starting to plan a rescue mission when we received your transmission through the radio.” She looked at Poe as she finished speaking.

“What made you guys move to Crait?” Poe asked, “I know we were talking about it, but what finally did it?”

“Hux found us the day after he became the supreme leader. He was ruthless, worse than Snoke ever was. Now that he’s not leashed to anyone, he’s free to create whatever mayhem he wants, however he wants. So when he found us, we had a good ten hour warning. We barely had enough time to pack up the bare minimum for survival, but we made it anyway.

“I’ve told you everything that happened on our end. What the hell happened to you?”

They told her everything. Rey started with the headache she’d felt at the beginning of the day, which she and Ben both quickly realized had actually been from her feeling his pain when _he_ had been captured. They continued with waking up on board the ship, and their discontent upon realizing that not only had they been captured, but they’d been captured with Kylo Ren.

“I woke up and at first I felt pretty awful,” Poe said with a hint of a smile on his face, “But then I saw Rey and Finn and I realized we were still together, so things might not be so bad. And that’s when I saw who they’d seated next to Rey.”

“In my defense I was only there to meet you.”

“What shit timing you have.”

“Tell me about it.”

The two men exchanged a laugh, a far cry from their first encounter with each other two and a half weeks prior. “But the prison itself…” Poe said, his voice trailing off as he recalled it. Rey could practically see the horrid sight of it through his eyes.

Finn shook his head, “It’s not something I’m going to forget any time soon. It was something out of a nightmare.”

“They packed us in four to a cell,” Ben said, “And to our chagrin, we were all forced together. In hindsight that was probably the reason we’re alive. It forced us to work together to get out of here.”

Poe nodded, a smile actually gracing his features this time, “I agree. So we spent about a week in this cell together planning our escape, and at first we didn’t get along, but… as the days passed we all… changed. We were different by the time we made that first escape attempt. We were a team.”

“But it went wrong,” Rey said, breaking her silence, “They caught us and we engaged in a fight, which we lost.”

“When we woke up we were back in that cell, and they were torturing us. They said they wanted information. They’d figured out we were on opposite sides, and when we tried to escape they realized whatever we knew was valuable.”

Ben cleared his throat, “They were selling secrets from both sides to both sides. They took in prisoners from both the first order and the resistance, and then when we pissed them off they started torturing us.”

Leia’s features grew worried at this latest revelation from Poe, and Rey watched her eyes lock on her son standing on the opposite side of the table. “Torturing you? How?”

“Standard issue stuff, really,” Poe replied, crossing his arms over his chest, “They beat us, and…” he swallowed nervously, “Cut into us after a few days, and they… they used this drug… every time they did it this drug…”

Finn rested a hand on his shoulder, “It burned, General, it felt like your whole body was on fire. And all the while they were questioning you, screaming at you for answers you couldn’t give up...”

They told her about how it went on for days on end until they ran out of the drug, and how on that last day, Rey finally moved something with the force, and they knew they had an out. She felt like she was actually there as they told the stories, reliving the memories to the point where she felt nauseous as they talked about her and Ben reliving the torture twice.  

Leia’s heartbroken expression as she learned about the bond and how it impacted their time in the prison felt like a knife to the heart. She looked as tempted as Rey felt to break down crying as she looked on at her son across the table, yet she pressed on, listening to the story without shedding a single tear. At least, she managed to until like Rey and Ben she shed at least one when she heard about the day they took Poe.

She would swear she felt a twinge of pain in her side where they’d struck her as Ben told the story of how the guards discovered the two were connected. It had been the final straw in their dire need to get out of there. Mercifully, all details of their in prison affair were omitted, even on Poe’s part.

While she suspected Leia knew something had gone down between Rey and her son, she wasn’t exactly eager for her to know all of the details of the relationship they’d started in their cell. She certainly didn’t need to know just what she’d taken from her son the morning they made their escape.

Finally, they finished their story with the escape itself, wielding their tale of battle and thievery as they fought to escape the hell hole they’d been living in. The general looked thoroughly shocked by the end of it, an expression on her face that Rey was certain even Ben hadn’t seen before.

“Well, that explains your clothes,” Leia said, gesturing to the first order insignia on Finn’s shirt, then she sighed, “We should get you four cleaned up and changed, then we’ll talk about breaking everyone else out of the prison.”

Rey’s eyes widened, “You’re serious?”

“Of course I am, some of them are our people.”

“And the ones that aren’t? I bet they’d be ripe for turning once they find out the resistance rescued them,” Poe added, “It’s a win win situation—assuming we succeed. We could get captured again.”

“You won’t get captured again,” Leia promised, “We’re going with you. We’ll take teams, and then we’ll take the prison.”

Poe looked satisfied with this, “We’ll need a minute to rest. I don’t know about you guys, but not eating right for seventeen days really didn’t do me any favors.”

Leia’s eyes widened, “Just a minute?” She asked, “No we’re not leaving for at least another week while you four make full recoveries. Force healing can only do so much. I want you all to see a medical droid, and do it immediately—then for the sanity of your friends, shower. You smell like a garbage dump.”

“We were _in_ a garbage dump,” Finn joked, and a light chuckle filled the room.

“That planet smelled awful, or maybe that was just the prison itself,” Rey replied, “The weather likely didn’t help. Always storming or snowing, and sometimes somewhere in between.”

“And we can discuss it later, you all look exhausted.” Leia was already walking away from the table and out of the room, motioning for the four to follow her, which was done without hesitation. “You have your orders.”

A resounding “yes, General,” was given from all of them with the exception of Ben, who looked confused as to how to address his mother as they walked away from their gathering. They barely made it three steps when Leia called out Ben’s name again, and they came to a grinding halt.

“Come with me,” was all Leia said as she turned and headed off in a different direction than they were going.

Ben hesitated, and looked back at Rey once before he gave her hand a squeeze, and left their group to follow his mother. She stared worriedly after him, not moving until she felt Finn tug on her hand, and she felt her feet move before she realized she was walking beside them.

The entire time they were being looked over by the medical droid, Rey alternated between two trains of thought. One was the events that had taken place over the past eighteen days that would forever change her, and the other was keeping track of Ben’s emotions through the bond.

Emotionally, Ben seemed to be staying pretty neutral. Occasional flare ups of regret and guilt filtered through, but other than that he seemed like normal even though she knew that conversation he was having with his mother would be anything but.

Once they were given the all clears by the droids, she, Finn, and Poe headed off to figure out where the hell they’d be staying while on Crait. It didn’t take them long to find Rose, who promptly beamed at the trio and asked them to follow her, “We set them aside for you in case you weren’t dead,” Rose said, but then she frowned, “We only set aside three bunks, though, not four. We didn’t know you’d be bringing back company.”

“When we left, we didn’t know either,” Rey admitted as they walked down a hall that— going by Finn and Poe’s faces— hadn’t been there last time.

“I just want to know how you did it. How did you convince Kylo Ren to give up being supreme leader?”

“She got in bed with him,” Poe joked, and promptly grunted when the back of Rey’s hand smacked him in the stomach, and he quickly corrected himself, “We had to work together to get out of there, and he didn’t hate Rey to begin with.”

“Wait, you did what?”

Rey cleared her throat, “Where did you say our quarters were again?”

Rose cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow as if to ask, “Seriously?” But she said nothing as they walked further down the hall, and gestured to two rooms lined up in a row, and one across the hall from the others. “This is it,” she said, “We put all your things in them, the two on the left are Finn and Poe’s. Rey, yours is on the right. I’d say you should figure out who Kylo is staying with, but…” She looked suspiciously at Rey, “I think we already know… Anyway, I’ve got to finish up some things in the front, but the minute I’m done, you’re telling me everything.”

“Thanks, Rose,” Finn replied, then she once again wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Me too.”

Rose let go of Finn, then she wrapped her arms around Rey and Poe in turn, and gave them one last smile before she left to go back down the hallway they’d come down.

After she left, Rey opened the door to her new bunk, vaguely registering the sound of Finn and Poe doing the same—though she noticed they walked into the same one—as she walked inside. It didn’t surprise her to see the same drab, but clean gray walls and basic cot with basic sheets. It all in all reminded her a little too much of the prison cell for her liking, even if it was cleaner and it smelled better, and had a bathroom at the far end. She saw a wardrobe off to the side which no doubt contained her clothing, and on a table at the head of the bed the broken lightsaber lay in two pieces as always.

She walked over to the saber, and took its two parts into her hands as she sat down on the bed. At one point fixing it had been the sole focus she’d had. Over the last three months she’d been trying and failing to repair the weapon she and Ben had broken, and a part of her wondered if since it had been the two of them who managed to break it, then it would have to be the two of them who put it back together. She made a mental note to ask him to help her with it when he returned from the conversation with his mother.

Several minutes passed with Rey just staring at the saber before she set it back down on the table, and leaned back against the wall feeling as if her skin was crawling in the somewhat confined space. Being back in a small room such as this one reminded her of the cell they’d been trapped in. She could almost feel the burning in her veins the longer she remained on the bed, and when it got to be too much, she quickly stood up off of it and moved toward the wardrobe. What she needed right then, more than anything, was fresh air. It had been too long since she simply went outside. The outdoors time in the prison sure as hell didn’t count. She walked into the bathroom at the far end of the room, and quickly took a shower, washing the last traces of the prison’s filth from her body as the minutes passed.

A few minutes later, Rey had changed every article of clothing she was wearing. The old breast band she’d had on the entire time she was in the prison went directly into the garbage bin sitting beside the wardrobe, and the clothes she’d stolen from the freighter she put inside, deciding she rather liked them despite their dark color. She’d replaced the black top she was wearing with a grey one, foregoing her usual beige given that she never wanted to see that color again, and black leggings with similarly colored boots, pairing the whole look with a dark grey jacket given that it was rather cold outside.

She pulled her hair back into a bun, then she was off into the hallways, heading back out of the base through the entrance. Someone stopped her to ask where she was going, but once she let them know she was just walking outside, they left her alone, and she made her way out into the twilight on Crait.

Behind her, she watched as the footsteps she made in the salt turned the ground red, almost completely distracted by it as she walked out onto the salt plains. It was rather windy out when she decided to take this walk, and mere seconds after she made her footprints, they were blown away into nothing by more salt as it was carried on the breeze. She was lit by the last remaining light of the already set sun, and she stared into the horizon at the pink, purple, and deep blue colorings as she watched the sky grow darker.

After a moment she closed her eyes, and breathed in the clean air, smelling the salt on the breeze as it blew back the flowy fabrics of her jacket and shirt, She listened to the sound of them as they flapped in the wind, to the sound of the fabric fluttering out and creating friction with itself, and for the first time in a long time felt true serenity.

  
With her eyes still closed, she became aware that after some time there were footsteps crunching the salt behind her, and she didn’t even have to open them to know that it was Ben who was approaching her. She could sense him through the bond. “How’d you know I was here?”

“Rose told me where I could find you. After she finished scolding me for my time with the first order, that is.” He was beside her now, and she could feel the warmth of his body from where he stood in proximity to her. A piece of cloth brushed against her bare hand, and she knew he’d changed his clothing as well from the last time they’d talked. The fabric was more rough than the soft tunic they’d stolen from the ship.

Rey opened her eyes, and turned to look at him to find he had indeed changed as she suspected. He was wearing pants similar to those from the ship, but he now donned a white shirt and black jacket combination she swore she’d seen before. As if he could tell what she was thinking, he gave her a nod, “It was my father’s. My mother said he’d want me to have it.”

She nodded as she looked him over, noticing he’d shaved the stubble that had been bordering on a full beard since the last time she’d seen him. The only traces of the prison at that point were the scars that she knew would forever decorate their bodies and his now hunger-pang frame. She reached up a hand to trace the one scar that she’d left, and sighed as she looked at his face, noticing the fading bruises he himself had sustained from the guards’ hands. “I needed fresh air. I couldn’t be in that bunk. It felt like…”

“I know.”

The wind blew his hair into his face then, and she laughed as she brushed it aside. Her laughter caused the corners of his lips to twitch into a smile, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, embracing him tightly as they stood in the twilight of Crait. Ben’s arms wrapped around her waist a second later, and she felt him breathe in deeply as he held her close. They stayed in their silence for a few minutes, relishing in their freedom and each other’s company. A part of her still couldn’t believe that he was there, and that he’d actually come back with them and forsaken the first order as he’d promised. Yet the firmness of him in her arms, the rough fabric of his father’s jacket assured her it was real, and he was there.

“I need to ask you something,” she said after a while, noticing that by the time she pulled her head away from his chest, the sun’s rays had vanished from the horizon. The only light shining on them now were the faint lights of the base as it sat behind them a small distance away, and that of the stars.

“What is it?”

“Your grandfather’s lightsaber is in my— _our_ —quarters. It’s still in two pieces,” she told him, feeling his emotions swirl as they both remembered just how they’d broken that saber.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking genuinely apologetic as his regret filled the bond, “If I’d just gone with you—”

She put a hand on his chest, “Stop, we’ve discussed this. You weren’t ready back then. You’re ready now. And I need your help to put it back together so we can fight, not only to free our friends, but to win this bloody war.”

He nodded, “I’ll help you,” he promised, putting a hand over the one she had on his chest, then he rested his forehead against hers, and it felt like the twilight became the night as he blocked out what little light she could see, “It’s almost over.”

“Almost,” she repeated, then she smiled, “We’re going to win.”

“I know,” he replied, then he frowned, and she was confused as to why until he spoke again, “Rey, now that we’re free... I’ve never… I’ve never had anything with anyone like this before.”

She pulled away from him slightly, and nodded in agreement. The stars seemed to form a halo over his head as he stared down at her, and she sighed, “Me neither, but it’s something we can figure out together. It’s something I want to figure out with _you_.”

Ben gave her a brief, closed mouthed smile, then he leaned forward, and kissed her for the first time on free soil. It felt as liberating as she thought it would as his lips caressed hers in the fading light, and the wind blew in the thin space between their bodies reminding her that they were no longer trapped in that prison. They were free, and they would never have to be trapped in that place ever again.

As Rey’s arms wrapped around his neck, and her fingers ran through his hair, she felt the balance in the force between them—the same balance she felt every time they came together—and she knew they’d make it through not only the battle for the prison, but the end of the war itself. In just a week, they would finally win, and it would at long last be over.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I knew how to draw so I could bring that end scene with Ben and Rey to life cause I'm proud of it, but alas I am a mere writer, and I must stick to the words. Anyway, I might break up the next chapter into two because there's a lot that still needs to happen, but if I do I'll post both parts on the same day. Either way we've only got two updates to go, folks. THE END IS NIGH. Also, we reached the 100k mark at long last, and I'm screaming.
> 
> EDIT: The title of this chapter is inspired by the episode of the show Lost called the Other Forty Eight days and was originally supposed to be entirely focused on what happened in the resistance while the core four were away, but I scrapped it and I can't remember why.


	21. The Battle Part One.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “That’s how you got the scar, right?” Poe asked, glancing over at Ben to look at the line that bisected his face. A nod confirmed that Rey had indeed created the scar on his face. A chuckle left him then, “She got you pretty good.”
> 
> “Yeah, she did.”
> 
> “You wouldn’t believe it looking at you now.”
> 
> “I deserved it,” Ben said, a solemn expression growing on his face as memories that Poe didn’t know about walked behind his eyes. “But you’re right.”
> 
> “You know if you hurt her, she’ll kill you, right?”
> 
> “Yeah.” Ben smirked at this, like he knew what would happen to him all too well, and he would entirely let Rey kill him if he fucked up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got LONG. But god it was so much fun to write. Sorry it took so long, my home life is absolute horse shit (again, not the place to vent about my problems) and I had a bit of writer's block, but when this finally did come to me, it hit me full force. Basically, this one's my favorite. I'll post part two of this in a couple of hours, I've almost finished it, but I figured I'd post this one now so I didn't make you guys wait too much longer for an update.
> 
> -update I’ll probably post part two tomorrow

The real Falcon returned to the base the next day, and in all the chaos of their return, Ben hadn’t even realized that it had been gone. When it came back, his mother walked out with him to greet Chewie, who had taken it out on a mission to look for them. He’d apparently been on the opposite side of the galaxy from the prison, and it had taken him a whole day to return once they radioed him that he, Rey, Finn, and Poe had been found. 

Unfortunately, the welcome Ben got wasn’t exactly warm, and Chewie almost looked angry to see him, but he didn’t say anything offensive in front of Leia. 

Once they walked back inside the base, they explained everything that had happened in the prison, and the wookie seemed to soften a little bit. He was still weary around Ben as the two walked back to their quarters, going their separate ways with polite goodbyes, nothing like how they used to be around each other. At one point, Ben had been very close with Chewie, but he supposed his actions as Kylo Ren had ruined that relationship significantly—he recalled what had been done to him immediately after he killed his father, and realized that it would definitely take Chewie a while to show him any forgiveness. He tried not to let it bother him too much, figuring that if Poe and Finn could forgive him, so could his father’s former best friend. 

The rest of the day was spent coming up with the rescue plan to retrieve the remaining prisoners, and take out the guards entirely. It took them two days to come up with the damn thing. It took them the remainder of the week to get everything ready for said plan, with Leia only able to spare about a hundred people for the mission given that the Resistance’s numbers were so small.

The first item on their long list of things to do was procure the proper weapons. That was easy enough with regards to blasters and whatever fighters they could get, but with Ben and Rey’s lightsabers, that was another ordeal entirely. One lightsaber lay in two pieces, and the other was chucked in a bin—or perhaps even under it, since Ben didn’t exactly see where it landed—on some distant planet. That was, it was still in the bin if they were extremely, extremely lucky. 

Over the first three days, Ben and Rey meditated strenuously to repair her broken one. It was an agonizingly slow process, but by the third day it started to bear fruit. The third day had the pieces of the broken saber slowly coming back together, but most of them didn’t stay that way, and fell apart just as easily. Normally all of this would’ve frustrated Ben, but after all they’d been through in the prison, he’d found a way to have a little patience with it.

Still, when he was offered the chance to return to the planet they’d initially been captured at and try to retrieve his saber, he almost jumped at it. The mission left on the fourth day, with him and Poe taking the Falcon and two other people to stand watch while they sifted through the bin once they arrived on the small mining planet. 

He and Poe were left to pilot the ship, the first real time they’d spent together since the whole ordeal. The first five minutes of the journey were spent in virtual silence, the only sounds they could hear were the sounds of the ship’s engines as they sped through hyperspace. Once they weren’t forced to spend time together, Ben couldn’t help but notice that they no longer spent any time together. He wasn’t necessarily against being friends with the man sitting in the pilot’s seat, but with their history…

It was Poe who broke the silence first, “You know I’m not angry with you, right?”

“What?”

“I’m not mad. Nothing’s changed now that we’re free, Ben. I’ve had my mind made up about you for weeks now.”

A sense of relief washed over him then, and the corners of his mouth twitched into a hint of a smile, something he’d been doing a lot more now that he was back on their side. Well, Rey had had something to do with that, but it certainly helped that he was no longer under the pressure of his duties as supreme leader. “I know,” he said after a few seconds, “We just haven’t spoken much since we got back.”

Poe shrugged, “We’ve been busy,” he replied, throwing Ben a wink, “I mean, I’m not sure about you, but I can guess.”

Ben smirked openly, “What do you think?” The two immediately burst into a comfortable laughter, as if they’d been friends for years instead of a meager couple of weeks. Perhaps in another version of events, in another universe, they’d been friends. If Ben had never gone to the darkside, he suspected that Poe would’ve been exactly the sort of man he’d have been close with. A new sense of regret washed over him, but it was quickly followed by a twinge of light from Rey, who had likely sensed him falling back into those old feelings and decided to put a stop to it before it could grow further. 

They spent the rest of the journey talking from there. It was only made better when they were victorious at the dumpster that Ben had tossed his saber into. By miracle of whatever gods were out there in the universe, the dumpster hadn’t yet been dumped. It made sense on a planet such as that one, but still, Ben had felt concerned he’d never see it again. 

They’d had to dig through the entire thing, but eventually, they found the handle of Ben’s lightsaber, and he’d nearly cried with a delighted laughter as they at long last retrieved it. As Poe looked on, Ben twirled it in his hand, and ignited it, relishing in the feeling of holding it once more.

He stopped immediately when he saw a twinge of fear in Poe’s eyes. Upon seeing that, he shut off the saber, and ordered for them to return to Crait. The commander softened a little at that, and it started to feel like perhaps they truly had been able to forgive each other for their past sins. 

When they got back to the base several hours later, Ben excitedly rushed to his and Rey’s quarters, and didn’t hesitate to throw open the door twirling the unignited lightsaber in his hand. She beamed at him as she watched him come in, and waited until he’d shut the door before she took his face in her hands, and kissed him until he couldn’t breathe. 

Once they’d gotten over their celebration of his lightsaber being safely returned to them, Ben and Rey once again set to work on completing her own saber. It took them another day and a half, but eventually they managed, and his grandfather’s saber was as whole as it had ever been. 

It would be another two days before Leia would let them go on the mission to the prison, and they needed to practice. They were up every subsequent morning at the crack of dawn practicing on the open salt fields of Crait, only stopping to eat or occasionally to rest when they became tired. 

Occasionally the others would watch them as they battled each other on the salts, creating paintings of red in the soil with their boots. Ben felt a surge of pride wash over him as they spared together for the first—technically second—time as allies, and not just allies either. 

By the time the sunset of the final day rolled around, they were a fair mix of exhausted and excited with a pinch of nervous. As they lay together in their cot that night, they stayed in silence staring up at the ceiling. The feeling of it somewhat reminded Ben of the night before their first escape attempt when they’d been sitting there just staring up at the ceiling until she’d asked him to hold her. Looking over at her in that moment, he knew she wouldn’t even have to ask and he’d do it. Too much had changed between them now for verbal cues to be as necessary. 

Sure enough, a moment later, Rey—as if she sensed what he was  _ thinking— _ shifted over on her side, and rested her head on his chest as she threw an arm over his waist. He looked down at her to find her staring up at him with an expressionless face, though what he was feeling through the bond was a different story. “Do you remember our first escape attempt?”

He scoffed, “Vividly.”

She turned her head away, and stared at the wall, “I meant what we talked about when we thought we were going to die.”

“That’s also something I remember vividly.”

It was the truth. Every detail about that night had been committed to his memory, right down to the way her head had felt against his chest and his heart raced too fast, pounding against his sternum. Ben had thought there was a good chance he was going to die then, and thus everything suddenly became sharper and clearer, like he was seeing it with new eyes. Yet there he was two and a half weeks later still alive. Perhaps it meant that he wasn’t going to die easily, or maybe it meant destiny just hadn’t intended for him to die in that prison—in that moment in time, at least. 

“Do you think this will be our last night alive?” Rey’s voice interrupted the dark path his thoughts had started to take, startling him somewhat. 

“What?”

“That night we thought we were going to die. But we didn’t.”

“I think that what followed our failure was worse.”

Rey looked up at him, then she brushed a piece of his hair out of his face as she frowned, “I assume you’re referring to the torture.”

He quickly nodded, realizing how his sentence came off, “Yes. Sorry,” he assured her, “The other stuff wasn’t so bad.”

She smirked at him, then she sighed, “But what do we talk about now? We already know what we regret the most.”

“I guess we still don’t know what to talk about when we’re about to die. You’d think we’d be good at that by now.”

A light chuckle left Rey’s lips, and his eyes fell down to them, whatever she said next nearly falling on deaf ears. “You’d think.”

Ben reached up his free arm to caress her cheek, and softly, but briefly, brought his lips to hers as he mulled over the question again. Just what the hell were they supposed to talk about now? With all the risk and stakes riding on this latest mission of theirs, they had no hope of holding a normal conversation, and he had no desire to talk about what they’d be doing the next day. 

If he were being honest with himself, he could indeed die happy with all he’d managed to accomplish in the last three weeks. He’d said everything he wanted to say, but there was one glaring exception tying a knot into his stomach, one he’d been tangling within himself since that night by the fire just before they fought together for the first time. It was a set of three syllables that he didn’t want to tell her just because he thought they were going to die, but he knew he’d regret not telling her all the same. 

Knowing she could likely sense the tension brewing within him, he quickly pushed down those thoughts, electing to wait until after they’d won to tell her how he felt. He wasn’t quick enough, though, and she almost immediately began to question him about it, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. The small, but enormous all the same conflict within him had been at least somewhat resolved. He’d made up his mind about how he’d handle telling her those three little words, and he’d elected to wait even if it felt like his thoughts were screaming it loud enough for the whole base to hear. 

Rey quirked an eyebrow at him, and disbelief filled the bond, “That doesn’t feel like nothing,” she replied, but then she seemed to realize what else he was feeling. That combined with the way he didn’t doubt he was looking at her probably told her everything, “Oh.” 

For a moment they remained silent, eyes locked on one another’s as they took in the wordless moment between them. Ben’s breathing became increasingly shaky as her emotions through the force became in sync with his, and without making another sound he reached down and threaded his fingers with hers, never wanting to let go. 

“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he promised her, “When we win.”

She kissed him then, soft and sweet, but he quickly deepened it, wrapping the hand he’d had around her back in her hair. They were done talking now. That night they didn’t have the boundaries separating them that they’d had the night before the first escape attempt. It was just them and the force swirling around them, creating musical-like harmonies as they moved. 

As they kissed, Rey slowly found her way on top of him, and they released the hand hole they’d had for the past several minutes while her fingers began to weave their way underneath his shirt. Rey’s lips left his then, and at first he was tempted to groan at the loss of contact, but then she began to plant kisses on his neck, and he gasped softly instead. 

All in all, Ben thought he was keeping it together pretty well, until she reached the base of his scar, and began to leave a mark there. Next thing he knew he had them flipped over so that she was on her back, and he was looking down on her. Rey was laughing, though he couldn’t quite make out whether her smile reached her eyes in the dark of the room. Her hand wrapped around the base of his skull, and she reunited their lips wordlessly. 

He melted into the kiss just the way he did with their first, still enjoying the way it felt to kiss her outside of the prison. That first kiss they’d shared in the twilight had felt somehow even better than the one they’d initially shared on their cot in the cell, but both were memories he’d go down cherishing if he met his fate the next day. 

Once again it felt as if Rey stopped kissing him all too quickly. As usual, though, she followed it up with something better, and her hands reached once again for the hem of his shirt. He pulled away for a moment to pull it off, tossing it somewhere on the floor. His attention was brought swiftly back to her, watching with curious eyes as her hands set about exploring his exposed torso. 

Silence remained as she pulled him back down to her, and buried her hands in his hair as she kissed him again. The weight of tomorrow seemed to finally hit him as Rey’s hands gripped him tighter, as if she were afraid of letting go. Anxiety filled the bond, though it had been the entire night, it had been subtle up until that point. But in that moment it was so loud they may as well have been screaming it. 

The harsh reality of the next day was that even though they had defeated a large number of guards, they’d probably only managed to kill thirty in total, and Ben was fully aware that there were more than that. The guards’ numbers were probably in the hundreds, and since their escape they’d likely been doubling down on security efforts, enough so that even Ben and Rey—powerful as they were—would have trouble taking them down. There was indeed a chance that they’d lose, and everything they’d worked for would be gone in seconds. 

He didn’t particularly want to think too hard on it, but it was difficult not to. It made him feel like he was still in that prison, with death looming over him every minute he spent so much as breathing. 

Ben pulled away from her for a moment, taking a pause to memorize the way her face looked as she stared up at him, her confusion filling their bond. The three words came once again to the surface of his mind, but he dared not say them. She deserved to hear that because he simply wanted to say them, and not because he thought they were going to die. 

“What is it?”

He didn’t know how to answer her question. There were so many responses he could give her, but none of them felt right. Instead of saying anything, he rolled off of her, and rested on his side as he wrapped one of his arms around her, his fingers tracing circles between the vertebrae of her spine. 

With a concerned look on her face, Rey placed a hand gently over his scarred cheek, “Ben?”

He sent her waves of assurance that it would be alright, then he sighed, “Like I said, I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“When we win?”

Ben nodded, “When we win,” he repeated, then he kissed her again--he swore he’d never grow tired of it—and reached for the hem of  _ her _ shirt with his wandering fingers. They had another twelve hours or so before they left on their mission, and a decent amount of time to kill. He intended to spent every second of their spare time between their sheets, and if the way she took off her shirt and threw it across the room was any indication, she intended much the same. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him back to her, as they sank further into the sheets, tangling them long into the night.

The next morning they headed out on a series of small transports. Well, not just the transports, both the Falcon and its twin freighter made the trip, too. Poe figured it’d be best to return the ship to its rightful owners. They’d have better luck convincing them to switch sides that way.

They were in hyperspace within an hour of waking, with Finn and Rey on separate ships from Ben and Poe. They’d agreed to go with the original plan that they’d had for their second escape attempt before all the brutal injuries had thrown a wrench in things. Each of them would take a force user, and a portion of their fighters as they rushed into what would undoubtedly be an intense battle. 

Ben and Poe took the twin freighter while Rey and Finn took the Falcon for the long, half a day’s journey to the cursed planet they’d spent seventeen hellish days in. Poe had made an offer to Chewie that morning to join them, but the wookie was still rather angry with Ben, and instead elected to go with Rose on one of the transports. Poe could tell that Ben was a little hurt by the decision, but still he’d nodded respectfully and headed off to his own ship without saying another word. The commander had done much the same after kissing Finn goodbye, and promising he’d meet him there. 

Poe and Ben exchanged a nervous look as he moved to bring the ship into the air, then they nodded to each other, and brought the ship up until they were in open space. They reached hyperspace a minute later, and Poe relaxed against the pilot’s seat, leaning back into it with his eyes closed.  “Are you ready for this?”

There was a pause before Ben answered, “Are any of us?”

A chuckle left Poe’s lips as he realized Ben was right. None of them would ever truly be ready to go back there, but it was something that had to be done. They were the only ones who knew the prison in any degree, the only ones who knew anything about it. The damn thing was so secretive they couldn’t find any further information on it than its location no matter what technology they used. All they had to go on was what he, Finn, Ben, and Rey knew, and that was more than a little infuriating. 

As prepared as they were for the mission, a part of him still felt like they were going in almost completely blind. They had no idea of the guards’ true numbers, or what they were capable of as a fully functioning unit. They only knew that they’d get justice that day or die trying. Not only that, but they’d free every single person trapped in that prison. Poe didn’t care if they were actively against the resistance or not. No one deserved  _ that  _ kind of torture, not a single living soul. 

“I’ve tried to convince myself that I’ll be okay going back there,” Poe said after a moment, “But the truth is, I’m afraid that the moment we land, I’ll break down, be completely useless.”

Ben remained quiet, and at first Poe feared he may have fallen asleep or elected to ignore him--perhaps all the progress they’d made had been for naught after all--but then he sighed, “I’m not very good with words--especially comforting people.”   


“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

The man sitting in the copilot’s seat scoffed lightly, then he continued, “What I’m trying to say is you… you might be one of the bravest people I’ve ever met.”

Poe looked over at him incredulously, like Ben had just told him the stars were mere glitter in the sky. Of all the things he’d ever expected to talk about with Ben Solo, this certainly hadn’t been one of them. He didn’t exactly consider himself a coward by any means, but to hear that he was one of the bravest people the man he once knew as Kylo Ren had ever met had him taken aback. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“I… Uh… Thank you.”

“Welcome,” Ben said, then they fell back into silence, though this time it was much more comfortable.

They talked periodically through the remainder of the ride, mostly to figure out how much time they had left, and to figure out the coordinates for their landing. The sound of the ship’s engines as they sped through hyperspace provided most of the noise until about an hour before the landing. At that point, he tuned it out almost completely, focusing his thoughts on finishing the mission and seeing Finn again. Thinking of Finn brought a smile to his features that had Ben asking him what was going on.

“If we win today, we’re free.” Poe was still beaming as he looked out the window, watching hyperspace pass them by, “I mean, we still have to defeat the first order, but if we win today? We’ll win the whole thing, you just watch. And then… we can live our lives, hopefully. I haven’t really thought much about what I’ll do when this is over.”

“I haven’t either, though I’m sure my mother will have plenty of ideas for me.”

“I honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far,” Poe admitted, remembering all his near death experiences. At least half of them had been in the walls of the very prison he and a majority of the remaining resistance members were heading for right then. “I thought I’d be dead by now.”

Ben paused for a second, “I used to think I was invincible under Snoke’s guidance,” he replied, “Then I fought Rey in a forest, and suddenly I realized I could die.”

“That’s how you got the scar, right?” Poe asked, glancing over at Ben to look at the line that bisected his face. A nod confirmed that Rey had indeed created the scar on his face. A chuckle left him then, “She got you pretty good.”

“Yeah, she did.”

“You wouldn’t believe it looking at you now.”

“I deserved it,” Ben said, a solemn expression growing on his face as memories that Poe didn’t know about walked behind his eyes. “But you’re right.”

“You know if you hurt her, she’ll kill you, right?”

“Yeah.” Ben smirked at this, like he knew what would happen to him all too well, and he would entirely let Rey kill him if he fucked up. Poe wasn’t sure just what she’d done, but whatever it was it had transformed Ben Solo completely. “You think Finn would do the same to you?”

If he were being honest, Poe wasn’t sure, but he didn’t have the same past with Finn that Ben had with Rey. Theirs was a much more easy love story. “I’ve never thought about that. All I’ve thought about is making it to tomorrow.”

“I don’t have to think about it anymore either,” Ben replied, “I once told Rey to let the past die. I’m following through with that.”

A broad smile grew on Poe’s face, then before he could answer, a beeping sound emitted from one of the instruments on the panel before them, “We’re five minutes out,” Poe announced, then he swallowed nervously, “Here goes.”

Ben’s anxiety didn’t show on his face, but Poe could see it in the way he was white knuckling the arm rests of his chair. His expression remained stony and blank, one crafted through likely years of experience. A part of him wondered what the man beside him had been through on the dark side, and maybe one day when they were ready, he’d ask him, but this would not be that day. They had a mission to get through. 

Twenty minutes later they landed on a familiar surface just a few miles away from the cliff face the prison resided on. Their ship as well as the Falcon and the two transports of people they’d brought were scattered throughout the hill. No one had wanted to land too close to one another in case they encountered a problem. Their whole team didn’t need to go down because of one mistake. 

Poe and Ben looked at each other one last time, nodded, then they got up out of the pilot and copilot’s seats, and led their team out of the ship. The commander went over their plan one last time before they began the short hike to the prison, the weather—a blizzard this time, just as it had been before they left—proved it to be a much longer hike than they’d anticipated, but that was fine by Poe. The team that was climbing the cliffside and entering through the restroom window would be taking a while anyway, and it’d be best if they got there at the same time.

That other team was spearheaded by Rey and Finn, the former of the two having had some experience scaling walls—which wasn’t entirely necessary considering they’d be using ropes to get up there, but she’d been insistent she was the best one for the job. They would enter in through the restrooms, and start freeing people on that side of the prison while Ben and Poe worked the entrance and another team headed in through the hangar on a third side of the prison. 

Poe wrapped his jacket more tightly around himself, and placed a pair of goggles over his eyes as he, Ben, and their team began the trek to their personal hellscape. It took them a good hour and a half, but before he was ready for it, Poe saw the dome shaped, rusted over building looming in the distance as he came to a stop behind a snowbank of medium height. He peered at it nervously through the snow, his breath fogging in the air in short bursts as he shook at the sight of it. He could hear his own screams in his mind as the drug coursed through his system, could hear Rey and Ben’s screams from the time they’d comforted them the first time they went through the torture, and felt each other’s pain through that bond they had. 

Behind him, he could hear Ben’s footsteps come to a stop in the snow. For a minute, the only sound was that of the wind swirling around them, and the snow pelting their clothes. Neither of them said anything, and their team of two dozen people said nothing either as they stared at the massive prison over the snowbank they’d knelt behind. 

After what was probably too long of staring at it, Poe began to observe the entrance from their position above it on the hillside, hoping the snow banks would conceal them enough from the guards sight. He wasn’t sure just how much they monitored the skies above them. From what he gathered, their location was obscure enough that they had some sense of confidence that no one would find them, that no one would come looking for their lost soldiers there. 

Outside there was the tunnel that led into the prison, the very same one he remembered walking through that first day. He’d still been in his clothes when they walked in there, wearing a brown leather jacket not unlike the one he’d given Finn, and the handcuffs they’d slapped on him. A foul smell entered his nose at this close range with the prison, and he remembered how bad it had smelled at first when they got there. They’d slowly gone noseblind to the scent, but at first… It had been overpowering. 

There were two guards outside that tunnel, holding large blasters in their hands as they scanned the area around them for signs of life. Several more were lined up around the walls, and they’d no doubt come in on them when they saw their friends go down, unless Poe didn’t do anything at all. Slowly, he turned his head to the left, and looked at Ben, their eyes meeting through their goggles, and without having to say a word, Ben gave him a nod. 

Poe turned back to the guards, then he watched as one after the other, they both fell to the ground unconscious. “What do we do about the others?” he asked Ben, wondering if he could take on that many at once. 

“I can take out a few more,” Ben replied, looking left and right as he, too scanned the area surrounding the tunnel, “But once they start coming, you’ll have to use that blaster.”

“And you’ll have to use that saber.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Ben quipped, then the two exchanged one last, nervous chuckle, and together they jumped over the snowbank, Poe ordered his men to come forward, and then all hell broke loose. 

The guards were on them immediately, and some went down with what seemed like a wave of Ben’s hand, but others kept coming, running at them with a determination that Poe almost admired. Beside him, a red light illuminated the falling snow, and when he looked over, he saw Ben’s lightsaber had been ignited. Blaster bolts rained down on them, and Poe ducked to avoid one as it sailed over where his head had just been. 

Ben on the other hand was blocking the bolts with both the force and the saber as they moved in toward the tunnel. By that point, the outside guard group had mostly been defeated, and Poe ordered a small group to stay back and finish them off as he, Ben, and most of the others rushed inside the tunnel. The moment they were inside, he took off his goggles, and stashed them in the pocket of his jacket before he continued running down the tunnel until he reached the actual interior of the prison.

Seeing those lanterns that had dimly lit the prison for the first time had Poe’s breath catch in his throat as he took it in for the first time. The moment passed in a fraction of a second, but it felt like a lifetime as he recalled walking in there for the first time. The feeling of seeing it for the first time was almost fresh in his mind, but he pushed it aside as he used his blaster to shoot off the locks on the doors, freeing the prisoners in the cells as they passed them. 

With a mixture of the force, blasters, and the lightsaber they had handy, they swiftly began to open the doors. A multitude of very confused, beaten, and battered people wearing a familiar bloodstained beige came slowly out of the cells, and Poe motioned for them to run out of the entrance they’d opened up. By that point, the men he’d posted at the front had likely defeated the guards, and it would do them no good to follow him and Ben deeper into the prison. 

People thanked them as they walked past, and by the time they reached the hallway they once had occupied, they’d likely freed a hundred people at least. Poe was fighting his mental flashbacks as they walked past the cell he, Ben, Rey, and Finn had once occupied, but they didn’t make it much further before a sizable number of guards stopped them with their blasters aimed high. 

Beside him, Ben’s lightsaber was buzzing as he held it at face level, staring down the shaft at the guards as if he was daring them to come closer, to find out just what that weapon could do. For a moment, an intense stare down occurred between them, but then one of them spoke, stepping forward and speaking in a voice that Poe recognized. “Surrender now, and we’ll let you live.” It was undoubtedly one of the guards that had been a part of his torture, and not only that, but he was also fairly certain this was the guard that had lied to them about how long they had before they’d been tortured again. 

Poe scoffed, “And get tortured again? Fat chance,” he replied, then he fired the first blaster shot of the latest battle, and they descended into insanity. He managed to get three guards down as they advanced, his team taking down at least half of them while he and Ben managed the others--though he’d later concede that it had mostly been Ben’s victory. 

A frightening second occurred when Poe turned his head to see a blaster bolt coming straight at him, and he almost yelped when Ben’s lightsaber appeared in his face to block it before it could hit him. Sparks flew in his face, and he ducked under the blade as they advanced down the hallway, pushing the guards back with force—and  _ the _ force— in their fight. Much to Poe’s delight, some of their fellow inmates picked up the guards weapons as they left their cells. He wasn’t sure if they noticed the Resistance symbols on their uniforms, but if they did, they were either on their side or they didn’t care. 

They left that group of guards for dead as they rushed further down the hall to a part of the prison they’d never even been to before, freeing more of their fellow prisoners. More guards appeared periodically, and if their own numbers hadn’t already grown, Poe would’ve probably been more worried about it ahead of time, but he wasn’t, and he didn’t care much until it was too late.

The guards got the upper-hand on them more quickly than he would’ve liked, however. More of them appeared at their rear, and they were soon surrounded on all sides. He and Ben were back to back with their fellow soldiers, firing blaster shots and deflecting them as best they could, but it was thirty seconds into the fight when he heard the first man of their own go down beside him, collapsing with one final, desperate scream. 

Poe didn’t have time to process the death or even see who it was, he had to deflect more blaster fire and prevent the guards from advancing on them. He was failing at that until they got so close that he was able to plant a kick in the gut of the closest one, sending him falling back into the others. That created a domino effect that had ten of them tumbling back in a row, and that created enough room for he and Ben to move forward, pushing them back a little.

They were far too quick to recover, and more of their own fell-- likely including some of the newly freed prisoners-- as the battle intensified. Poe cried out as a blaster skimmed his arm, cutting through the layers of fabric he’d put on that morning as it brushed by him at too close a range. It would no doubt leave a mark, but he wasn’t completely down. It hadn’t hit him directly. He’d been incredibly lucky, and he’d be grateful for it once he made it out of there alive. 

A guard got a hit on Ben, his fist striking him across the face, and causing him to drop the ignited saber, which cut through the torso of another one standing nearby. As that guard fell into two rather disgusting pieces on the floor, Poe fired off a few blaster shots to keep the others from advancing on him as he picked it up, and stabbed through the nearest guard. 

Ben meanwhile had his blaster out, firing upon the guards until he could retrieve his weapon again as the guards got close enough that they were now mingling with the Resistance fighters, fists and feet actively joining as weapons alongside the blasters. The action separated him from Ben, and he found himself with a blaster in one hand and a lightsaber in the other and no idea how to use the latter weapon. 

“How the hell do I use this thing?” Poe cried over the noise of the battle, elbowing a guard in the face with his spare hand as he tried to ask Ben what the hell he was supposed to do with it. He could probably toss it to him, but he didn’t want to risk it falling into the hands of one of the guards. Even if Ben used the force, there were too many people between them, and it would only take one well timed, wrong hand to catch it for them to lose this battle. 

“Just swing it!” Ben shouted back, then he had his arms around the neck of a guard, and the two disappeared beneath the crowd. 

Poe waited until he saw Ben surface above the crowd again before he put his blaster in its holster, and began to swing at the guards with the saber in both hands. He found it wasn’t the worst thing to use, and the weapon really did most of the work for him as he worked his way back over to Ben. Several more guards were taken down, but going by the screams, so were several more of their own. Poe tried not to think about it as he finally reunited the lightsaber with its owner. 

The moment the saber was back in Ben’s hands, Poe had his blaster out, knocking out a guard with the butt of it, and kicking another away from himself as the action began to diminish slightly. Unfortunately, they were still significantly outnumbered, and he knew they wouldn’t be able to hold out forever. 

“There’s too many of them!” a woman’s voice cried out behind him, but whose voice it was, he couldn’t be sure. 

“Hold steady!” he shouted back, “We can’t afford to lose!”

“Maybe not, but we’re going to!” Ben replied, narrowly blocking a blaster bolt from hitting his midsection. He sent it firing back into the guard who had fired it, the other man crying out in agony as he collapsed. 

That guard was quickly replaced by another, and Poe suddenly felt the fear that this was a lost cause, and maybe they wouldn’t make it after all. With so much talk about hope, and what would happen if they won, he’d been expecting to win, even if there was an underlying fear they wouldn’t make it. He hadn’t actually expected that they’d lose. They couldn’t, they’d come too far.

But luck had been with them every day of their ordeal, and a moment later he heard the sound of more blaster fire coming from the other side of this latest horde of guards. Not a second after that he saw the familiar flash of blue from Rey’s saber striking down guards on their rear as he turned around, realizing more blaster fire was ensuing behind him.

A smile lit up Poe’s features as hope filled him again, and he laughed anew as the guards fell on either side of them. Rey and Finn were fighting through the crowd, stabbing with a lightsaber and hitting hard with fists and blasters as they rushed toward him and Ben. Soon the four were back to back in a square formation as they slaughtered any guard that came near with the help of their comrades and allies. 

“Nice of you to show up,” Poe said to Finn, barely able to hear his own voice over the noise of the battle. 

“Sorry I’m late, I had a cliff to climb,” Finn replied, laughter tinting his voice as a guard fell in front of them. 

Behind them, Poe could faintly hear Rey and Ben having their own banter, the sound of their voices refreshing him as they finished off the last of this group of guards together. Once Rey struck down the last one with her saber, she and Ben then deactivated their weapons as they turned to each other, each of them covered in sweat and panting hard. 

That didn’t stop Poe from turning to Finn immediately, taking his face in his hands, and kissing him forcefully in a kiss of unspeakable joy and pleasure at the fact that he was there, that they were both still alive. Due to his shortness of breath, he had to pull away sooner than he would’ve liked, but he could still taste Finn’s lips on his as he pulled away, the point of contact feeling like it was on fire as they pulled apart, and rested their foreheads against one another. 

They were still breathing hard as they wrapped their arms around each other, and Poe looked over Finn’s shoulder to find their fighters all embracing as they realized who was still alive. Some were also crying as they looked over the bodies littering the floor, and realized who was dead. Ben and Rey were among them, arms wrapped around each other’s waists as they looked over the sea of the dead, their chests still heaving from the heat of the battle. 

Rey whispered something to him as Poe watched, and Ben slowly turned toward her, leaning down to press a short kiss to her lips before he—like Poe had with Finn—wrapped his arms around her, and held her close like he’d never let go. The commander certainly knew the feeling, but he was also fairly certain the fight wasn’t over yet, they’d just completed the first half, and this was the intermission between the acts. 

After too short a time, Poe broke his embrace with Finn, though he kept a hand in his as they walked over to Ben and Rey, and tapped the latter of the two on the shoulder. Their friends slowly broke apart from their own embrace, and their expressions sobered into serious, business-like ones. “Where the hell were you guys?” Poe asked.

“We went through the bathroom window, but when we came in, there was no one there. Your assault on the front and the hangar team distracted them enough,” Rey replied, “They put all their focus on you. We saw only a few on the way here.”

Finn nodded, “We spent most of the time freeing prisoners until we realized why we weren’t very busy. We heard your screams from halfway across the prison.” 

“Is that it?”

“No, it’s not.” Rey replied, then she frowned, “The team that came in through the hangar—Chewie’s team— was losing badly, and we had to choose which one of you we came to. They took them back towards the torture chamber. We think the guards are going to hold one last stand there. But almost the entire prison’s out. It’s over, they know this, they just want to take as many of us out as they can.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to take all of them out,” Finn said. 

Ben smirked, “So am I.”

Poe gripped his blaster again, and held it toward the ceiling, “Let’s kick some ass, then.”

Ben and Rey gripped their lightsabers more tightly in their hands as Poe turned to the people they’d fought with, “This is your last chance to turn back,” he warned them, pulling his blaster back out of its holster, “If you come with us, you’re coming to fight.” 

No one moved or said anything, which meant that mercifully, none of them left. Poe grinned wickedly, then he raised his blaster in the air, “Let’s move out!” He cried, then he, Finn, Rey, and Ben marched out with their entourage down the hall, heading back the way they’d come toward the torture chamber they’d spent more time than he cared to remember in. He couldn’t be sure how his mental state would be when he walked back in there, but he had to finish this, and he had to save his friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I love the moment Poe's got Ben's lightsaber so much, but I really fucking do. And if you can't tell, I really enjoy developing the friendship between them, like I REALLY enjoy it. Anyway, we're so close to the end I'm screaming. See y'all in a few hours... or tomorrow morning if I take too long. You can't trust me to promise anything I'm the worst with that kind of stuff. Later, guys.


	22. The Battle Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was then that the lead guard stepped up in front of him, breaking his formation from the others and causing Poe’s heart to race at lightspeed in his chest. “I don’t think I need to say anything for you to know what I’m asking.”
> 
> “What? Surrender or die?” Poe asked, wondering how he wasn’t trembling, though he could feel a strange sense of being too hot despite the prison being freezing cold. Ben had called him brave before they’d walked into this, and so had Finn the night before, but he certainly wasn’t feeling that when he had to choose between his life and his friends. 
> 
> “Surrender or they will die.” The guard pointed behind him, where his friends were all looking at him with a nervous anticipation as they stood stiffly straight in front of the guards’ blasters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY. I didn't mean for this to take so long and I genuinely meant to upload this the other night, but I decided I hated it and rewrote the whole thing. I might've rewritten it twice. Anyway, it's here now and I'll try to get the finale up as soon as I can.

They walked down the hallways for the most part in silence, only making sounds when they freed people as they made their way to the torture chamber. Most of them ran out, desperate to get free of the wretched prison, but some stayed and elected to fight with them. They stole weapons off of guards’ bodies as they went, and Poe wondered vaguely how many of the guards there were. It wasn’t possible for them to have infinite numbers, and he knew by this point the Resistance outnumbered them.

“I don’t want to go back in there,” Finn admitted to him as they turned around a corner, finding more of the guards bodies—with a few of their friends, unfortunately—scattered throughout. 

Poe grimaced as his foot slid a little on a pool of someone’s blood, though he tried not to think too hard on it. “I don’t either, but we have to end it. That head guard is probably still alive, and we need justice for what happened to us.”

“Yeah, but… I just… I don’t know how I’m going to be...”

Finn didn’t have to finish his sentence, Poe already knew what he meant, “I know, me too.”

At one point, Finn’s hand found his, and the two stared straight ahead as they walked closer and closer to the torture chamber. Already Poe could hear screaming in the distance, and he tensed as he thought about what the hell they were doing to his friends. His free hand curled tightly around his blaster, and behind him he heard Rey and Ben muttering to themselves as they walked, their conversation as tense as he felt. 

Before he was ready for it, they were staring down the door to the torture chamber—more accurately, they were staring down the dozen guards that had been posted outside. Poe almost scoffed at their lack of effort. Hadn’t they learned that a dozen guards wasn’t enough with just four of them? In that moment their numbers were in the forties thanks to the many prisoners who’d elected to join them. This was a battle the guards were destined to lose, but they still had to proceed with caution. 

“One of your men ordered us to surrender earlier,” Poe told them, aiming his blaster directly at their heads, “Want to find out how that ended?” But the men didn’t budge. He’d have to give them props for how stubborn they were, how much they tried to achieve victory, but their scheme only worked as long as they weren’t discovered. They’d captured the wrong soldiers, they’d finally made a colossal error in judgement. 

With the guards still saying nothing, Poe gave the order to attack, and beside him, he heard Ben and Rey ignite their lightsabers as they charged forward into battle. They used the force to down the first two guards that came at them, but it was Poe’s blaster--along with Finn’s-- that took down the next several. Like it had been in their second escape attempt, it was mostly the four of them who took down the guards outside the door.

The initial battle was over in a matter of minutes, and they stormed toward the torture chamber door effortlessly. One of their friends used the force to open the door, and they rushed in to find the guards had their friends all tied up on the far side of the room, half of the remaining guards had blasters pointed at them, and the other half had blasters pointed in Poe’s direction. The expressions on their friends’ faces were a fair mixture of terrified and resigned, and suddenly Poe knew why they’d been screaming. 

“Shit,” Ben said from somewhere behind him. He was once again right. This would be a bit harder to get out of. They had guns not only on them, but on their friends. Their attention would have to be divided, but there were so many of them this time that Poe wasn’t entirely certain they’d make it. Still, he’d be damned if they didn’t try. 

Poe’s eyes scanned the room, landing on two familiar faces as they stood up against the wall with their wrists cuffed. Rose and Chewie stared back at him with nervous looks in their eyes, likely wondering the same thing he was. How were they going to get out of this? 

It was then that the lead guard stepped up in front of him, breaking his formation from the others and causing Poe’s heart to race at lightspeed in his chest. “I don’t think I need to say anything for you to know what I’m asking.”

“What? Surrender or die?” Poe asked, wondering how he wasn’t trembling, though he could feel a strange sense of being too hot despite the prison being freezing cold. Ben had called him brave before they’d walked into this, and so had Finn the night before, but he certainly wasn’t feeling that when he had to choose between his life and his friends. 

“Surrender or  _ they _ will die.” The guard pointed behind him, where his friends were all looking at him with a nervous anticipation as they stood stiffly straight in front of the guards’ blasters.

Somehow this felt worse than the battle that he’d just fought physically. He was now having to fight himself mentally, deciding whether or not winning this fight was worth the lives of his friends was taking a toll on him and he’d only been doing it for second. On the one hand, he could take this prison for good and end this, but his friends would be dead, and on the other… He didn’t want to think about it. Unless he had a third hand. If he was quick enough, and if his force using friends were even faster, he could prevent the senseless slaughter of his friends. 

He scoffed at them, “We’ve already freed most of the prisoners, it’s over, you’ve got to know it’s over,” Poe replied, “Even if you take us down here, we’ve got more people outside who will take you down, and the resistance knows where we are.”

“Poe,” Finn said warningly, and vaguely Poe remembered they weren’t supposed to reveal much who they were to the guards, but with their impending potential victory looming over their heads, he didn’t particularly care what they heard at this point. They already knew he was from the resistance anyway.

“No, it’s okay,” he assured Finn, then his gaze fell back on the head guard who stood a small distance of two steps away from him, “We don’t need to hide now, they won’t win.”

“Are you truly willing to sacrifice your friends for this?”

Poe didn’t answer him, instead, he shifted his finger on the trigger of his blaster, and shot a single bolt into the man’s abdomen. He’d chosen the third hand, he wasn’t going to let any of them continue to die. The head guard looked completely stunned as he looked down to find a hole which crimson blood was now spilling from. Not a second later he collapsed to the floor clutching his wound, and Poe stared him down as he fell. Knowing chaos was about to erupt, Poe cried out to the people on the far side of the room, “Duck!” then he and his friends began to unleash hell on the guards. 

As expected they began to fire on the handcuffed people on the far side of the wall, but Rey and Ben managed to deflect a large number of the bolts right back into the guards as they advanced into the room, uncuffing their friends as they went. The battle picked back up again as Poe fired shots into the nearest guards to clear a path further into the place they’d once spent hours being tortured in, stepping over the head guard’s weakened form as he walked further in. 

A punch was thrown in his direction, and it landed on his jaw, causing him to stumble back into a very stunned Finn. The two fell to the ground, but Poe quickly leapt back to his feet, knowing he couldn’t afford the smallest of distractions. He shielded Finn with blaster fire as he stood up, then they fought back to back as the second half of the battle kicked off. 

Launching a kick into a guard’s stomach, Poe whooped with laughter while Finn elbowed another in the face. A blaster shot zoomed over their heads, and together they dropped into a kneel as it was deflected back through where they once stood by Ben, and directly into the guard who had fired it. As he stood, Poe gave Ben a nod, then continued to fight back to back with Finn. 

They were quickly gaining the upper hand on the guards, but it was no less exhausting than the first battle had been. Their fellow prisoners and the people they’d walked in with were just as skilled of fighters as they were, and Poe wondered just who they’d been locked up with all that time. Some of them were doing the fight with their bare hands, and others used the guards blasters—one woman even managed to get a knife off of the bastards—as they slaughtered their captors.

A growl sounded off around the walls, and he turned to see Chewie take down a guard by wrapping an arm around his neck and breaking it. Poe gave him an impressed look as he threw another punch into a guard’s gut, knocking the air from his lungs before he hit him over the head with the butt of his blaster. 

On the other side of the room, Rose was backed up against the wall, but she was giving it her all as she kicked and punched at the guard, who blocked every strike. 

Seeing a break in the space between them open up, Poe held his blaster high, and aimed for the head of the guard that was trying to defeat Rose. He fired one, well-timed shot into the guards head, and the man collapsed to the ground while his friend shrieked before running back into the battle to continue the fight. 

With that, they significantly outnumbered the guards. They had about four dozen with them to the guards single dozen—if he were to count the head guard still bleeding out on the floor by the entrance it’d be thirteen guards— and it was almost over, but Poe still had a bad feeling in his gut as they made their way over to Ben and Rey, who had just finished off a trio of the guards. The ones that remained were currently being fought by their other allies, which gave them a minute to talk in the rapidly cooling battle. 

“Do you think there are more of them?” Finn asked. 

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Poe replied, then he looked around the room, noticing that no one had come in to help the dying guards, and he realized one thing, “They’re evacuating. They know it’s over, they’ve got nothing to lose but their lives. Once we take these guys down it’s done.”

“Let’s take them down, then,” Rey said, then she ran away from their huddle, and slashed her lightsaber viciously into the shoulder of a guard that was gaining the upper hand on a raven haired woman nearby. She cut all the way through his torso, and out the side of his waist, and he collapsed to the ground in two pieces almost soundlessly. 

The woman who’d been fighting him gave her a nod and thanked her, then the two women rushed back into the battle. Poe looked back at Ben and Finn, then the three of them charged in as well. Poe took out one immediately with his blaster, and engaged in a fist fight with a second as the battle began to draw to a close.

Rey and Ben took down another three of them with the force, and there were only six remaining as the battle came to a pause, those final six guards seeming to pause as they realized they were the only ones left. At some point in the chaos, the lead guard had stood up again, and was staring them down with his hand covering his brutal wound. 

Poe sneered at the man, “Surrender now, and we’ll let you live,” he said, panting hard as a bead of sweat trailed down his cheek.

The head guard cocked his head to the side, seeming to contemplate this for a second before he finally nodded, and reached up a hand to do something Poe had never seen coming. He took of his mask, revealing a pale, somewhat young, and not entirely unattractive face with blue eyes and hair almost as dark as his own. Sweat was dripping down his own cheek, no doubt from the heat created by the mask he’d always been wearing. “Alright,” he replied, falling to his knees as he looked up at them, “I surrender.”

Poe’s jaw dropped in disbelief. He hadn’t thought it’d actually work, but throwing the man’s words back into his face seemed to have a weird effect on him. Not only that, but seeing the face of the person who had tormented him for weeks shook him to his core. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting of the man who’d done this to him, but he hadn’t quite been expecting… someone who looked so… human. Then again, Ben looked human, and he’d done terrible things. He couldn’t really judge a book by its cover.

Beside him, Ben and Rey deactivated their lightsabers, and Finn lowered his blaster, as did the rest of their team—if they held blasters in their hands—as the two words sank in. “You surrender?” Poe repeated, walking toward the lead guard, looking down at him cautiously. 

To affirm his intentions, the guard nodded, and hung his head low, staring at the ground. Poe chuckled, and turned around to face his friends, just missing the smirk that the man kneeling before him gave. “We—”

Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly being knocked to the floor by Ben as a blaster shot rang out, and he heard Rey scream before igniting her lightsaber, and the remainder of their team had their blasters at the ready. Poe grunted as his head came in contact with the floor, and Ben immediately rolled off of him, as he groaned. The commander watched with horror as Ben’s hands clutched a small blaster wound on his right side. It had grazed him a little more severely than the one that had hit Poe’s own arm earlier, but still left a significant mark that had blood spilling out onto his fingers. 

Poe quickly reached for his blaster, and stared down the guards that remained, “Who fired that shot?” he shouted at them, rushing up to them until the business end of his weapon was pressed firmly against the head guard, “Tell me!”

One of the other guards slowly raised a sheepish hand, and Poe quickly turned his blaster on them, “Someone put handcuffs on this one— actually, put handcuffs on all of them, we’re taking them in. When we get back to the ships, get that one medical attention.” He pointed to the lead guard, who was looking paler by the minute as the bloodstain on his clothes grew larger. 

As the others moved in on the guards, Poe quickly turned his attention back to Ben, only to find that Rey had already deactivated hers, and was kneeling by his side. One of her hands was holding his, and the other was pressed against the wound at his side as she whispered things to him. He knelt down beside them, with Finn quickly following, “How bad is it?”

“Not that bad,” Ben replied, “I can probably stand.”

“Can you heal yourself?”

He shook his head, “Not here, they’ve still got that thing running. You’ll have to get me to the ship.”

Poe nodded, then he took in a deep breath, “You… You saved my life.”

“You’re welcome,” Ben muttered, then Poe held out a hand, and he took it, letting the commander pull him up. Rey and Finn quickly followed suit, and once they were all standing, Poe took a look at their numbers. 

There were still at least forty of them, and considering they’d walked in there with a little more than twenty, Poe considered that progress. “Alright, let’s move out!” he cried, then they began the march back out of the prison. 

As they walked out, victorious cheers erupted from their entourage, only growing louder the closer they got to the exit. Poe led them out through the front entrance, surprised to find that most if not all of the prisoners they’d freed were still waiting for them outside, huddling together in the cold of the storm, though it had begun to die down as time went on. 

Once everyone still in the prison was outside, they set to work on assigning them to ships, warning the lot of them that they’d be transported back to the Resistance, and they could either join up with them, or be trapped once again. Though, if they chose the latter option, Poe could guarantee that they’d be treated a lot better. They were divided as evenly as possible through the four ships, but even with that the fit was alarmingly tight. There wasn’t much room to separate the wounded from those that were unscathed from the battle, which made things difficult. 

Eventually they managed, and an hour later they were sailing off toward the stars. This time, he and Finn drove the replica while Ben and Rey rode along in the Falcon—once they convinced Chewie, which was mercifully easier that time. After seeing Ben save Poe’s life, something seemed to change in the wookie, and he didn’t protest when Ben head home in the Falcon with Rey. He could only wonder what was happening on the other freighter as they finally, permanently left the prison behind...

On the Falcon, Ben and Rey were resting in a spare bunk away from the chaos of the crowd, letting Chewie do the flying as Ben worked to heal the blaster wound he’d received to his side. He warned Rey that he wasn’t exactly skilled in healing himself, but she simply shook her head and assured him he could do it. She took one of his hands, and pressed it to her side where her rib had once been broken. 

Beneath his palm she felt warm and unbroken. She was put together, whole, and it had been because of his actions. He supposed she was right. Perhaps he was better at this than he gave himself credit for. 

With a sigh, Ben took that hand and pressed it against his own wound this time, reaching out for the force as best he could. Like normal, it swirled within him, humming from his fingertips into his wounded form, but nothing seemed to be happening. The stinging of the pain went away, but the wound was no better looking than it had been when it was first opened.

He looked up at Rey with disappointment and sorrow in his eyes, but she simply smiled at him softly, and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. “Ben, it’s okay,” she replied, “It’s not that bad, it can wait till we get back to the base.”

Ben reached his hand back up to caress the base of her skull, looking between her eyes. The sincerity of her expression had his heart racing in ways he hadn’t thought possible before he met her. Though they’d had a little time to get used to the new normal between them, he sometimes still couldn’t believe it was real. There were still mornings where he thought he’d wake up back on the Supremacy or some other ship, and none of it would have happened. It all would’ve been a dream. 

Mercifully, he continued to wake up with her by his side, and as he pressed his lips to hers this time, he remembered the three words he hadn’t wanted to tell her the night before when the threat of their deaths loomed over his head. He pulled Rey onto the bed with him as he kissed her, ignoring the wound in his side as he rolled them over onto their sides. She giggled into the kiss, but her palm came up to find his jaw, and he figured she didn’t care too much either. 

Whether she sensed the mounting pressure building within him to say what he’d been wanting to tell her for days or not he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that there was no longer the threat of death looming over them—at least until they decided to finally take down the first order— and he wanted her to hear it. He’d never been good with words, but he figured it was only three, he couldn’t fuck them up too badly, could he? “Rey,” he said as he pulled away, eyes once again locking with hers. 

“Hmm?”

“I love you,” Ben whispered softly, his fingers weaving their way through Rey’s hair as he gingerly spoke the words he’d been longing to tell her. 

Rey’s smile reached her eyes, which were growing misty as she said, “I love you, too.” Then she kissed him again, and Ben swore he’d never let go as he wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the twinge of pain in his side as he deepened the kiss. 

Unfortunately, there was one downside to the forcebond. She could feel the pain it caused, and she slowly pulled away from their intensifying kiss. Ben groaned in protest, “Rey,” he said again, pleading with her to come back to him once again.

She simply shook her head, “We have to take it easy until you’re healed,” she told him. All she was doing was looking out for him, and he loved her for it, but damn his injury to hell he was not going to let their first moment of true freedom be ruined by pain. 

Yet he knew she wouldn’t budge either once she’d made her mind up. He decided to compromise between the two, leaning in for a slower, more gentle kiss than they’d begun a moment earlier. Rey hummed softly as their lips came together once more, and together they found a slow, almost lazy rhythm as they celebrated the words that hung in the air between them. 

His hands loosened their grip on Rey’s hair, and one of them slowly made its way down to rest on the small of her back as he pulled her closer to him. Part of it was because he still felt like he was in a dream. It didn’t feel possible that they could be so lucky to have gotten out of that prison alive  _ twice, _ much less together. He’d give the damned place one thing, it had brought him back to her. He never should’ve left in the first place, but he’d once told her to let the past die, and it was past time he followed through with that advice. 

The only things assuring him that this was indeed real, and not the dream he feared it was, were the vibrant, warm feelings of her lips brushing against his, and the force humming in balance between them like it did every time they came together. She was real, the moment was real, and their victory was real. 

Suddenly he realized they had a future, especially once they finished the war, and a sense of warm relief washed over the bond from him. Rey relaxed against him as he broke the kiss, and let her tuck her head into the crook of his neck, remembering the first time they’d touched one another without anything between them. They’d come from touching fingertips by the fire to holding each other tenderly like they’d been lovers for years instead of the mere weeks it had been in reality. 

Unlike that first touch, though, they hadn’t seen visions since. Not of the past nor the future, just nothing. “Remember the visions we had when we touched hands?”

“What about them?”

“What did you see?”

“Snoke created them, I don’t think it really matters.”

“He lied about a lot of things, who says he was telling the truth?”

She shrugged, “Maybe not, but if it’s real…”

“What?”

“I want to wait till it happens before I tell you,” she replied, pulling away from him to look upon his face. 

“Was it good?”

She gave him a nod, “Very.” A strand of hair was brushed from his face by her wandering fingers, and tucked behind his ear as she pressed a kiss to his cheek, “You’ll find out one day, I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“I know you will.”

Ben yawned then, feeling a sudden exhaustion creeping over him, likely from the draining battle he’d just fought by her side, but Rey didn’t seem that tired. Upon a second glance, her eyelids were dropping as well, and she looked like she was struggling to stay awake. 

The hand on her back began to trace small circles there as he sighed, “We should probably get some rest,” he said, “We’re going to have a lot to do when we get back.”

She groaned softly, “You’re right,” she replied, stretching out her legs beside him before she relaxed again, “And you’re injured, you need sleep more than I do.”

“I’m fine, Rey, it’s just a bad scratch.”

“You almost died, Ben. Any closer and that blaster would’ve hit something important.”

He was fully aware of just how lucky he was. When he’d barreled into Poe’s side earlier, he hadn’t been thinking. All he knew was he didn’t have time to stop the bolt, the energy from the device they’d gotten from Hux was draining him again, and the only thing he could do was push him out of the way. He’d done it without thinking, but looking back on it he would’ve made the same call with a clearer head. 

“Well if I hadn’t done it, Poe would be riding home for a funeral procession.”

“I know, and I’m… thank you, for saving him…” she replied, placing a chaste kiss to his cheek.

Ben smiled softly at her, “You’re welcome,” he said, his voice trailing off at the end as he closed his eyes, and sleep took him in its clutches minutes later. 

When Ben woke up, he was back in his bunk in the base on Crait, and someone was gently stroking his hair. A part of him was aware that that person was sitting beside him in a chair, leaning onto the bed, and at first he thought it was Rey, but then he didn’t sense her right beside him through the bond. Instead, someone else’s force signature was sounding off beside him, and he knew instantly who it was. 

He slowly opened his eyes to see his mother sitting beside him, her head tucked into one arm while her other hand was stroking his hair. It stunned him to see her there in his and Rey’s quarters, but he didn’t mind too much. She already knew about the relationship between them. 

“What happened?” he asked slowly, wondering how he’d gotten there when he was fairly certain that he’d fallen asleep on the Falcon. He was open to being wrong, and perhaps he was still too within the throes of sleep to remember exactly how he’d gotten there, but something told him he wasn’t awake when he came in.

His mother’s head popped up from her arm, and relief crossed her features as she let out a breath he knew she’d been holding, “You’re awake.”

“Yes I am… How did I…?”

“Get here? We had to carry you. You passed out on the Falcon, so Rey had to tell me what happened. Your injury was worse than you thought.”

Ben remembered the burn of the blaster bolt as it struck his side, and even in that moment he felt rather sore where he’d been hit, but when he looked down, he saw a sizable bandage wrapped around his waist. At least, he could see the end of it peeking out of the bottom of his shirt, which had changed back to the white one his mother had initially given him upon his return. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, she’s helping me sort out the people you rescued. Most of them agreed to stay.”

“And the ones that didn’t?”

“We’re keeping them on the base until the war is over, but thanks to the four of you we now have what we need to take down the first order.”

The corners of Ben’s lips lifted slightly in a smile, but then his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What happened to the guards we captured? Did the head guard say anything?”   


His mother nodded slowly, “He didn’t have to say much, mostly what we already knew. The location of the planet? Of course it was obscure, they couldn’t have people finding it like we did. The way they did business? They wanted to make money. The only thing we didn’t really know was how they obtained the force blocking technology before Hux made it known to the public.”

“How did they get it?”

“Hux discovered their business and wanted to know Resistance secrets, but didn’t want to give them money since you were still…” a pained expression crossed her features, and Ben looked away with a pang of guilt shooting through him at the memories her statement brought forth. After a moment, she shook her head, “... So he traded them his device for their knowledge and told them it might come in handy one day, and he was unfortunately right.”

And finally everything about their time in the prison made sense. The last domino had finally fallen into place, and though he felt a bit angry about Hux’s betrayal, a sense of peace also washed over him at the revelation. The peace reverberated throughout the bond between him and Rey, and he wondered if she’d been told the same things he had been. “Does Rey know?”

Another nod, “The other three were present for his interrogation.”

Ben thought for a moment, then he moved to sit up, groaning slightly in pain as he righted himself. For a second, he saw stars in his vision, but then they cleared, and the pain dimmed as he threw his feet over the side of the bed. His mother reached out her hands and helped him to stand, holding onto him for a moment as she made sure he could walk on his own. “Ben, you should be resting,” she protested, “I can send Rey back here and take over for her if you want.”

Unfortunately for her, Ben had always been and would continue to be stubborn, and he refused her advice as he made for the door, not wanting to sit on his ass for another second. He’d already been asleep for almost a day, he’d rested enough by his standards. “No, I’m fine,” he said, then he was out the door with Leia trailing close behind him. 

Walking became easier the longer he was on his feet, and by the time they reached the main room, which was full of hundreds of strangers, he was walking with ease. It didn’t take him long to spot Rey from there. She was standing in the middle of the room watching everyone as they found their places in the base that was now too small for their numbers. 

Ben looked back at his mother once, and she simply gestured for him to move forward, but before he did she called out his name, and he paused as she sighed, “I’m glad you’re back.”

Another soft smile was thrown her way, “Me too,” he replied, then he rushed out into the crowd. 

The journey to Rey and his friends--a part of him still felt weird calling them that, but it hadn’t quite been enough time for it to feel normal--felt like it took forever as he wove his way through the throngs of freed prisoners. Some were in normal clothing, and others were still in their stained, beige prisoner garb. But all of them had looks of exhausted relief on their faces as he passed them. 

When he finally reached Rey, her back was to him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist when he reached her. She yelped in surprise, then when she realized it was him, she turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him tightly against her. “You’re awake!”

Ben placed a kiss on the top of her head, and relaxed into her touch as he returned the embrace, one hand wrapping around her waist and the other caressing the base of her skull. “I slept for half a day, I figured it was about time I woke up.”

Rey pulled away from him slightly, only to bring her lips to his as they stood in the center of the room holding each other. Though he was fully aware his mother knew they were together, he still didn’t particularly want her to see their intimate moment, and at first he hesitantly began to pull away. She was quick to shake her head and pull him back down to her, and suddenly his mother potentially witnessing their kiss was forgotten.

When Rey pulled away, she was beaming up at him, and as he rested their foreheads together, she sighed in contentment, “We won.”

He nodded, “We did.”

“Now there’s only one thing left to do,” she replied, “Win the war. And now that we’ve got you… We’re unstoppable.”

“The hundreds of new people might help, too.”

She smacked his chest lightly, “But no one knows the first order like you do,” she reminded him, “That’s why it’s going to be having you on our side that wins us this war, Ben… It’ll all over soon, just watch.”

Ben grinned subtly, then he kissed her again, reveling in the freedom their victory at the prison brought him. His thoughts flew the light years to where the prison now sat empty, and would one day be completely and utterly destroyed so that no one could ever use it again. It was all over—everything to do with the prison, at least— and finally he could look forward to the future that Rey had seen in her vision, though she wouldn’t tell him what it was. All he knew was, he couldn’t wait to find out. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONE MORE UPDATE. HELL YEAH


	23. Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s…” she began, but found herself unable to finish her sentence.
> 
> “Beautiful,” Finn’s voice replied.
> 
> “Yeah, beautiful.”
> 
> It felt almost surreal to be standing there. Nine months earlier she thought she was going to die, and the prospect of doing anything like this felt like an impossibility. They’d had a few close calls during the war, but they had never been confined like they had in that prison, which was hopefully rotting away into dust on the planet they left behind.
> 
> The beautiful sights and the silence of the breeze were almost hypnotic, and Rey walked out further from the ship, watching behind her as her feet made prints in the snow. A grin lit up her features as she bent down into it, and reached with a leather gloved hand to pick some of it up, and let it fall gently through her fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY MCSHIT. It's the end. Oh my god. I cannot believe we're here, thank you all so much for reading this the response is more than I ever thought it would be, it's more than I've gotten on any previous fics I've written COMBINED. You guys' comments and kudos and hits just kept me going and somehow I managed to finish this in under two months, which I gotta say, I'm proud of. Last time I wrote a 100k+ fic, it took me three years. Anyway, I'll save the big dramatic speech for the end notes, but... I'm not sorry for a damn thing that happens in this chapter.

The war lasted three more months after that. It felt like forever as the four of them waited for it to come to an end. When it finally did, it was on board the rebuilt Supremacy, and it was declared won when they fought the most intense battle of their lives that resulted in the very satisfying death of General Hux. Destroying their fleet after was just the nail in the coffin. 

Six months after it ended they’d gotten their lives together for the most part. Finn and Poe had taken up a residence on Chandrila, working with Leia in some degree as they worked to repair the galaxy from its latest conflict. Ben and Rey, meanwhile, decided to continue their training on Ahch To, and settled down on the island and all its Porg covered glory. 

Despite the distance, the four of them kept in touch, making regular visits to one another between the peaceful island and a bustling city. 

That was why six months later, once they were all settled in and they’d had enough time to recover mentally and physically from the fight, they took a trip out to some snowy planet—thankfully not the one they’d been trapped on—in the outer clusters. Rey and Ben flew the Falcon while Finn and Poe slept in the bunks on the six hour journey. 

The day went blissfully from virtually the beginning as Rey looked over at Ben as they slowed from lightspeed to find he was already looking at her, a sense of anxious hope flooding their bond, “What?”

“Nothing,” he replied, “I’m just... nothing.”

She suspected it was far from nothing though as they descended into the snowy planet’s atmosphere, and worked to land the ship. They flew over a group of mountains, and landed on the other side of an enormous valley just before a line of trees that began a forest. 

When they landed a few minutes later, they hurriedly rushed down the halls of the ship to wake Finn and Poe from their sleep, and change into their winter clothes. They were long overdue for a snow trip, and now that everything and everyone was settled in, it was about time they enjoyed the white powder the way it was meant to be seen. Not on a battlefield like she’d first encountered it, and not in some inhumane enclosure as it had been when she’d seen it the second time, but as something peaceful and serene. 

As Rey shrugged on a heavy, off-white coat, she sensed the anxiety building within Ben once more. It was almost overwhelming. Internally, she could sense Ben was an absolute mess, and she had no idea what could possibly be doing this to him. 

Concerned, she placed a hand on his arm as he pulled on a leather glove. It was black, like the ones he used to wear, but so were most of his clothes. “Ben, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he replied tritely, then as she stared at him more, he sighed, “I promise, it’s nothing bad.”

Rey cocked her head to the side, not believing him, but he didn’t say anything. She gave his arm a gentle squeeze, then she moved away, and reached for a pair of her own gloves, though hers were a shade of beige. It took her nine months, but she was finally starting to not hate the color anymore. She could finally look at it without seeing the crimson stain that accompanied it in her nightmares. She’d made a fair amount of progress in the months since their freedom, but still each day was difficult. Some mornings she still thought she was waking up in the cot they’d shared in their cell, but being on the island for the last six months had ensured it happened less frequently than it initially did. 

She didn’t know what was bothering Ben, but she knew she’d find out. She wasn’t going to let him suffer anymore; all that was in the past. The present was about peace, about keeping their lives as free of conflict as possible. The only conflict she was inviting into her life after the war and the prison was what she’d decide to eat that day.

A moment later, Finn and Poe appeared beside her, having finally decided to get up from the bunks. She snickered slightly under her breath as she noted Poe’s mussed hair and the marks covering his neck, earning her a grin followed by a friendly, “Shut up.”

Finn simply moved past her with a look of pride on his face as he reached into the wardrobe they were pulling clothes out of, and pulled out a brown jacket. As he shrugged it on, he looked between Ben and Rey, sensing a bit of tension in the way they weren’t quite meeting each other’s eyes, and allowing him and Finn to fill the space between them. 

“You guys okay?” the former stormtrooper asked, looking a bit concerned as he put his jacket on. 

“We’re fine,” Rey assured him, “Something’s troubling him, that’s all.”

Realization seemed to hit not only Finn, but Poe as well at this, and Rey blinked as she watched Poe whisper something to Ben, who promptly shook his head. The commander then placed a hand on his arm, and something else was uttered below his breath that she doubted even Finn could hear. 

As the two men pulled away, Rey tugged on a hat, and looked at them curiously, but no one said anything to her as they worked to finish dressing for the cool weather. 

The first step she took out onto the snow five minutes later was liberating. The soft powder crunched slightly beneath her feet, and tiny snowflakes began to fall on her face as she looked up into the bright grey sky. Beside her, Ben, Finn, and Poe were taking in the sights, looking out onto the snowdrifts and the trees that surrounded them. Not a single other creature was in sight. It was just them, the Falcon, and the snow. Just as Ben had promised her six months earlier.

They stood staring out at it for a moment, looking at the mountains in the distance as they rolled and sloped lazily into the horizon. It was so different from the snowfall on the planet they’d been imprisoned on, which had been chaotic and intermittent. This was consistent, and peaceful. Rey remembered at one point telling Ben she used to love the rain and the snow, but their imprisonment had ruined them for her. She realized watching the snow fall quietly with a gentle breeze, she was very wrong. 

“It’s…” she began, but found herself unable to finish her sentence. 

“Beautiful,” Finn’s voice replied.

“Yeah, beautiful.”

It felt almost surreal to be standing there. Nine months earlier she thought she was going to die, and the prospect of doing anything like this felt like an impossibility. They’d had a few close calls during the war, but they had never been confined like they had in that prison, which was hopefully rotting away into dust on the planet they left behind. 

The beautiful sights and the silence of the breeze were almost hypnotic, and Rey walked out further from the ship, watching behind her as her feet made prints in the snow. A grin lit up her features as she bent down into it, and reached with a leather gloved hand to pick some of it up, and let it fall gently through her fingers.

A delighted grin grew on her face as she stood up, watching the last of the snowflakes she’d collected leave her grasp. The moment was everything she’d ever wanted from a trip out into the snow, and a stark contrast to the underlying threat that had been ever present the entire time they were in the prison. Some of her own nightmares featured the snow that had fallen on that planet, its white turned yellow in the dim prison lights of her nighttime horrors. But not this snow, this snow was pure white that was interrupted by nothing but the nearby tree line just before the hill began to slope downward. 

“Did you ever think we’d end up here?” Poe asked, his breath fogging in the air as he spoke, and drifting away on the breeze.

Rey looked over at him in confusion, though a part of her did indeed understand him, “What do you mean?”

“At peace, on some planet far away from everything, and alive?”

“I don’t know.”

Ben shifted beside her, “If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be standing here today—”

“You’d force choke me against a wall?” Poe joked.

A twinge of guilt filtered in through the bond, but Ben simply scratched his head, and apologized once again. “You’re probably right, sorry.”

Ben had mostly gotten over his feelings of pure self loathing for what he’d done, and all that remained was a whole load of guilt that she let him feel. He sometimes needed the reminder of how everything had shaped him into finally becoming the hero they’d needed desperately. But some nights she’d catch him waking up in a cold sweat from another nightmare, and she’d hold him, stroking his hair and talking to him until he fell asleep again before she even thought about closing her eyes. 

Other times she’d catch him looking at his scars in the mirror, as if he were remembering each one like a map of horrible, horrible memories. She’d always pull him away, and remind him it was in the past. Considering he was the person who’d told her to let the past die in the first place, he wasn’t the greatest at doing it himself, but he was lucky. He had her. 

“Do we really want to talk about that place again?” Rey asked, bending back down into the snow, and picking up another handful, “We’re here for the snow, not…”

The others quickly seemed to realize she was right, and Poe quickly uttered an apology, “I’m sorry, I was just… I was thinking about…”

“How it used to snow there, too?” she replied.

Poe nodded, “Yeah.”

“But it wasn’t like this,” Finn said, “And it stormed more than it snowed.”

No. It wasn’t anything like that at all. As Rey began to play with the snow in her hands, she realized how the tranquility of this planet was so starkly in contrast to the violence and the constant raging of the other snowy planet they’d been on. The weather was constantly changing and shifting in the prison, constantly at war with itself. On this new planet there was some sort of certainty, a promise that this was how things would always be. This planet was peaceful, and it was exactly what they needed. 

The others were doing much the same as she’d been doing as she looked over to find Poe making shapes in the snow as he laid down in it, spreading his arms and legs out from his body and bringing them back in over and over. When he stood up, there was a Poe shaped print on the ground, even the wrinkles in his clothing were imprinted upon the snow, and she and the others shared a laugh as they looked at his creation. 

Finn laughed at him, then he reached down and balled up some of the snow in his arms, firing the ball of ice he’d created at his partner’s face. It exploded in a flourish of white powder, and Poe’s mouth fell open in shock, much to the other three’s delight. The former stormtrooper collapsed into a fit of laughter on the ground as Poe slowly began to laugh with them before he too began to gather snow into a ball in his hands. 

Before any of them knew it, Finn was hit in the gut with Poe’s snowball, and as Rey began to laugh, another hit her in the back of the head from Ben. As she turned around to see his stupid grin, she was reminded of the day they’d first tried to escape the prison. Like that day, they’d caught Finn and Poe having a snowball fight first, and he’d hit her with one by surprise. That time she hadn’t known quite how to make a snowball, but this time she’d be damn sure she at least  _ tried _ .

“Ben Solo, you’ll regret that,” she replied, bending down into the snow and gathering a snowball of her own in her hands. She fumbled with it a few times, and in the meantime Ben threw more snowballs at her, ducking behind a nearby snow drift to make sure he avoided her inevitable retaliation, but she wasn’t letting him get away that easily. 

Once Rey managed to get a snowball into her hands, she looked around the snow drifts, searching for Ben, and she’d nearly given up on finding him when a snowball sailed over her head. She turned around to see Ben, Finn, and Poe all running toward the hill past the Falcon, and she quickly followed suit, chucking her snowball at Ben’s head. The force was definitely with her as the snowy ball made its impact in his raven hair as he finished ducking behind it. 

Two could play at that game. 

Rey waved away the snow with an explosion of white powder and the flick of her hand, earning her a cry of, “Shit!” from Poe as she brought another snowball to life with the force, chucking it straight at his chest. The commander ducked out of the way just in time, but Rey had more coming. 

Ben quickly picked up on her trick, and as the four launched an all out war on each other. As they’d done when they attacked the prison, Finn and Poe each took one force user onto their team as the snowball fight kicked itself into high gear. 

Rey and Poe went up against Ben and Finn, relentlessly raining down snowballs both crafted by their own hands and the force as they ducked in and out of the snow drifts to fight one another. 

  
It didn’t take long before Poe managed to land a snowball in Ben’s face, taking advantage of a moment where he was too busy staring at Rey to focus on the ball of white coming straight for him. Ben fell back as it hit him, stunned, but when he got up and wiped the snow off of his face with his gloved hands, he was smiling. 

She’d seen Ben smile many times in the months since they’d been back in each other’s company, but the sight of it still felt refreshing. It felt like the sun itself had come down to the ground to say hello. For a man who’d been shrouded in darkness his whole life, Ben Solo had a light within him as well that was almost blinding. 

Ben’s retaliation came in the form of a rather sizable snowball crafted with the help of the force that he launched straight into Poe’s gut, knocking him down just as he was jumping behind the snow drift. 

Rey looked down briefly to make sure he was alright, then she herself launched one at Ben, and another at Finn as she swerved to avoid one of the latter’s snowballs. The one she threw at Ben was successfully dodged, much to her disappointment, but his face lit up as his snowball made an impact on her shoulder. 

She cried out in shock, then she picked up more snow, and ran out from behind the drift to chase him down the hill.

Slowly, they broke up into two separate fights, Ben and Rey descending further down the hill, and Finn and Poe heading for the tree line. 

They barely even noticed as their two groups split up, and Rey couldn’t help the laughter that broke free from her lips as Ben tripped over his own feet, and fell on his ass. She took the opportunity to throw a snowball directly into his face, and in his distraction, she hid behind another piling of snow at the top of the hill. 

She could hear Ben’s footsteps as he approached, calling out her name as he worked to find her, and she watched her breath fog in the air before her. There was a sense of mischief through their bond, then she heard the sound of someone breathing just behind her, and she turned to see Ben standing tall above her crouched form. 

An innocent smile was thrown his way before it quickly became playful, and she jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck as she barreled into him with a little more force than necessary. They fell down the hill together, tumbling over each other until they came to a stop at the base of another snow drift, grunting out in a slight pain. They then fell to the ground in a heap laughing, Finn and Poe’s voices long since drowned out by the distance as Ben looked up at her. 

“What?” She asked, sensing the same anxiety she’d felt earlier through the bond as her eyes met his, “Ben, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he replied, blinking away a snowflake that had fallen into his eye, “I just… we made it, we were wrong.”

“About?”

“In the prison, we thought we wouldn’t make it, then the war, and… we’re here, Rey.”

She nodded, “We’re here,” she repeated, “We made it.”

His eyes were full of love and admiration as he pulled her down to him in a kiss, and she giggled into it as he shifted their positions so he was on top of her, pressing her into the snow drift. 

Rey moaned into the kiss, reaching up her gloved hand, and threading it into his damp hair as she deepened the kiss. Her other hand gripped his upper back, brushing off the snow that had started to gather there. 

Ben pulled away slightly, looking down at Rey, watching the snow gather around her, the flakes catching in her hair, on her eyelashes. He watched her breath misting in the air, combining with his in the close quarters they presently found themselves in, and he reached up a hand to caress her cheek. 

Rey could sense anticipation building within him through the bond, but she didn’t call him out on it, instead, she pulled him back down for another kiss, relishing in his warmth on top of her as they kissed in the snow. Ben hummed softly as their lips parted and came together over and over again, Rey’s arms wrapping around his neck as she pulled him tightly against her. In that moment, she never wanted to let go. 

When they pulled away again, Ben stared down at her, and she beamed at him, “I can’t believe you did this,” she said. 

“Did what?” He asked, rolling off of her so that he laid beside her now, snowflakes gathering on his face, too. 

Rey rested her hand on his cheek, tracing the scar she’d given him so long ago. The once angry red cut was now a thin, pink line, barely visible against his skin from a distance, but obvious when she was as close to him as she was. “You remembered our conversation from months ago, we had only kissed, and you promised to show me snow one day. You remembered.”

Ben pressed a kiss to her gloved palm, “Seeing you in the snow? I was always going to remember that.”

Rey beamed at him, but her smile quickly began to fade as once again, she sensed his anxiety through the bond. She could put it off as all of their past trauma causing him to be afraid, but something told her this was more than that. It wasn’t just the past that was haunting him, and she couldn’t figure out what else he could possibly be afraid of, “What is it?”

“What?”

“You’ve been nervous all day, I’ve felt it. What’s going on?”

He sighed as he brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, and it occurred to her that the hat she’d put on in the Falcon had come off at some point during their tumble down the hill. The anticipation and anxiety she felt through the bond only grew by the minute, and she pleaded him with her eyes to tell her what was troubling him. 

Ben was still more stubborn than anyone she’d ever known, “I’ve been thinking about something,” he said, his eyes drifting between hers, “For a while, not just today.”

Rey’s brows furrowed as she pressed a hand against his chest, “Can you tell me what it is?”

Swallowing nervously, Ben’s hand came down to caress her cheek, the smooth leather cold against her warm skin as his heart raced in his chest beneath her. He was only growing more nervous by the minute, but he was building up to something, like a volcano preparing to erupt. She could only wonder what it was that was bothering him so much. 

“I want to,” he replied, blinking a snowflake out of his eye, “But I…”

“What?”

Ben didn’t answer her question, instead he pulled her down, and pressed a kiss to her forehead before he sighed, “I love you.”

“I love you, too” she told him, not for the first time, and not for the last, though she wondered just what the hell this had to do with what he was trying to say to her. 

Suddenly, she sensed a resolve in him not unlike a year earlier when he’d saved her life in Snoke’s throne room.  _ “Where there was conflict, I now sense resolve,” _ Snoke had said, his voice having haunted her dreams until the prison took them over three months later. Ben was at peace with whatever he was trying to tell her, and he was ready to say it.

His own features broke out into a grin, and he brought his lips back to hers as he rolled on top of her once more. The anticipation filtered in through the bond, and her heart began to race as Ben’s hand cupped her jaw, and he broke the kiss a moment later, eyes locking into hers as he answered her declaration with something of his own. 

“Marry me.”

The words sounded like music to her ears, and her jaw fell open as she tried to process them, and failed. Suddenly she understood the anxiety that had been filtering through the bond the entire day, from the start of the morning when they’d left Ahch-To to right then. He’d been planning this the entire day. As spontaneous as it seemed, it had been itching at the back of his mind and subconsciously at the back of hers. 

A part of her couldn’t believe she’d heard the words in the first place, and she involuntarily squeaked,  “What?” 

“Marry me,” he repeated, his voice softer than it had ever been as he looked anxiously between her eyes. 

This time, it hit her what he was asking. Ben Solo had just asked her to marry him. She could hear her breath echoing in her ears as she looked up at him, and once again that nervous anticipation filtered in through the bond as he waited patiently for her answer. There was only one she could think to give him, only one she  _ could  _ give him. All she had to do was say the word.

“Yes,” she said, smiling brightly as she gripped his hair in her fingers. 

“What?”

“ _ Yes, _ ” she repeated, this time laughing as the weight of her answer hit him, and he joined her in her laughter before silencing it with another kiss. 

Rey pushed lightly at his shoulders, rolling on top of him in their snowdrift as she kissed her  _ fiancé _ , grinning into the kiss before they broke it once again, and she slowly pulled herself off of him. 

Ben looked disappointed until she held out a hand for him, which he took, allowing her to help him up until he towered over her again. She laced her fingers with his, “I want to tell Finn and Poe,” she explained, then she took a step in the direction they’d come from, but he stopped her, twirling her back into his arms as he met his lips with hers again, reveling in their engagement just as much as she was. 

She wasn’t complaining as she kissed him back, letting him lift her into the air as he kissed her passionately, then he broke the kiss, and spun her around before setting her back down, and resting his forehead against hers, “Just wait a minute,” he said, “I just… I just want to stay here a little longer.”

Rey nodded, then she fell still, letting him hold her like this with his arms wrapped around her waist and her hands gently caressing his cheeks. They stayed that way for several minutes, not thinking of their past, of everything that had led them to this moment, nor their future, of everything this moment would lead to. They thought only of the present, of Ben’s two words, and her one in response. 

Ben laughed after a moment, and when she looked at him in confusion, he pulled away slightly to brush a piece of her hair behind her ear as he answered her, “I was just thinking, Rey Solo has a nice ring to it.”

She giggled, a small, soft sound she could sense had him reeling, “It’ll be nice to finally  _ have  _ a last name.”

They laughed together this time, then Ben gave her one last, lingering kiss before he took her hand in his once more, “Come on,” he said, then he led her back over the snow drift to where Finn and Poe were still carrying on their snowball fight, oblivious to what had just gone on out of their line of sight. 

Rey called out to them to stop just as Finn’s snowball struck Poe in the face. All four of them laughed as Poe brushed the frozen flakes from his face, and turned to face Ben and Rey. “Are you guys done already?” He asked, looking between them. 

They looked at each other, and as Ben laced their fingers, realization seemed to dawn on Poe’s face. “You did it.”

Suddenly a lot more things began to click for Rey, and she realized why Poe had been so quiet when he’d spoken to Ben before he left the ship. He’d known. Ben had told him and Finn that he’d been planning to propose to her. They were involved in it. The entire day suddenly started to make sense, and Rey’s head was spinning from the pleasant surprise. 

“I did it,” Ben answered, then he looked down at Rey as she laughed. 

“You told them?”

“More like I forced it out of him,” Poe admitted, scratching his head as he wrapped an arm around Finn, “Last time you guys came out to Chandrila, he started acting funny, and at first I thought maybe we weren’t actually on as good of terms as I thought we were, but then Finn went, ‘Poe, why don’t you talk to him,’ so I bugged him about it until he all but yelled it at me.”

Finn nodded, “I was with him, so that’s how I knew.”

  
Rey looked up at Ben, and saw a pink flush fill his cheeks—not just from the cold, either— as he shuffled his feet awkwardly on the ground, “That’s when we came up with the plan for this trip. They said I should do it here.”

“They were right,” she assured him, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to the edge of his mouth.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I fully plan on celebrating,” Poe said, walking back toward the Falcon, dragging Finn by the hand with him, “You two gather firewood—don’t get distracted—make a fire, we’re going to get the alcohol.”

“Don’t you get distracted either,” Ben replied. 

Poe turned and gave Ben a wink as he and Finn walked up the on ramp to the Falcon, and disappeared within the bowels of the ship. 

Once they were gone, Rey turned to Ben again, and smiled brightly as she looked up at him. Neither of them said anything, letting their emotions through the bond do all of the talking as she drank in the sight of a snow covered, purely blissful Ben Solo. 

After all they’d been through, they’d finally made it to the vision she’d seen the first time she’d been on their island. Back on the ship home from the final mission to the prison nine months prior, she’d promised to share with him the details of her vision when it finally came true, and that time had just come and passed. “Do you remember the visions we had when we first touched hands?”

“Of course I do.”   


“This was what I saw,” she told him, “Us, the snow, you asking me to marry you. This is what made me cross the galaxy to you.”

Ben’s breath shook as he looked at her, another wave of love washing over the bond as he kissed her again, wrapping her in his arms. She responded to the kiss in kind, her arms coming around his waist to hold him closely against her as their new future began to unfold before them. She couldn’t quite see it like a vision, but she could feel the direction they were headed in, and despite all the pain from the beginning, the future—their middle and their end—held nothing but peace. 

Vaguely in the back of her mind, she remembered they were supposed to be gathering firewood to celebrate their engagement, but she couldn’t be bothered to remove herself from his arms. As the minutes passed, Rey kissed Ben with the same passion—though none of the shyness—from their first kiss, and despite all of the hell from the prison and the nightmares it had caused, she wasn’t half mad at what had resulted from their time in there. 

They were still coming to peace with what had happened to them all those months ago in that planet so far away, but each day had gotten easier. With Ben by her side, sealed to her in every way it was possible to be sealed to someone, she knew it would only continue to get better. 

After a while, she pulled away from him, and rested her forehead against his, not even having to say the  _ “I love you, _ ” that threatened to ghost her lips for him to form the perfect response. 

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I need a mic drop. Anyway, I've got a lot to say and only 4926 more characters to say it in.  
> One: Thank you all  
> Two: Fun fact, while writing this chapter there was a thunderstorm and it felt so fitting.  
> Three: I wrote the proposal scene midway through writing chapter nine because suddenly I knew exactly how to end this and if I didn't write it then and there, I would've died.  
> Three point five: I glossed over the war because literally every other fic does that, shows them winning the war, and what people like about this fic (at least from the comments) is that it doesn't follow what everyone else does, and I intended to see that through the end.  
> Four: None of my friends know about this. They barely even know I ship Reylo. All my friends are staunchly antis, and MAN. I've had to keep this secret for months.  
> Five: Once again, thanks everyone for reading this shit, cause honestly, your local author did not expect this in the first fic she wrote for this fandom  
> Six: I've got another one I'm working on right now, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter of that up in the next few days. Ever read a Night at the Museum AU?  
> Seven: THANK YOU ALL. I cannot stress this enough, the response to this kept me fucking going. I've been dealing with a shitty situation at home and y'all have been fantastic. Anyway, bye for now, I'll be writing other stuff, so stick around.


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